Rishi Sunak tops new UK PM vote as only 4 remain in race
London, Jul 19: Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak extended his lead in the race to replace Boris Johnson as the Conservative Party leader and British Prime Minister, as he added 14 more votes to his tally in the latest round of voting by Tory members of Parliament.
Sunak, 42, has consistently topped the shortlist since voting began last week and on Monday he bagged 115 votes in the third round, which leaves only four candidates in the race.
Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt is holding on to second place with 82 votes followed by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss with 71 votes and former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch at 58 votes. Tom Tugendhat, Tory backbencher and House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Chair, dropped his tally from the previous 32 to 31 votes and was knocked out of the contest with the least votes.
The fourth round of voting will take place on Tuesday, at the end of which another candidate with the least votes will be eliminated to edge towards a final shortlist of just two candidates by Thursday.
The battle remains poised for the all-important second spot, with all eyes on the candidate who will go head to head with Sunak in the final leg of the race as the former finance minister's lead seems to be crystalising.
While Sunak picked up 14 more votes from the previous round of 101, Mordaunt dropped one from 83 in the second voting round last week. Truss has improved her tally from 64 and Badenoch is up from 49 in the last round.
The magic number is seen as 120, with the candidate receiving the backing of at least 120 of his or her Conservative Party colleagues guaranteed a spot in the final shortlist of two candidates to compete for the Tory membership votes.
The last few rounds of voting are being held this week as a third live television debate, scheduled to be hosted by Sky News' on Tuesday evening, was cancelled after the channel said both Sunak and Truss had declined to take part.
It is believed the decision is influenced by the clashes between the two candidates over disagreements on tax and economic measures as former Cabinet colleagues in the Johnson led government.
The tension played out live on air as Truss clashed with Sunak repeatedly during an ITV' debate on Sunday, sparking concerns of damaging Tory infighting. A snap poll after the debate put Sunak in the lead but Truss was trailing in last place.
According to the BBC, the foreign minister wants to focus on hustings between Tory MPs, who hold the current voting power, and Sunak's camp has indicated that he would be open to more debates if he qualifies for the final two.
The cancellation of Tuesday's debate comes amid concerns in the Tory party about the harsh tone of the campaign.
After the next few rounds of voting on Tuesday and Wednesday to further whittle down the shortlist further, the final two candidates in the fray will be known by Thursday.
The duo will then hold hustings in different parts of the UK to try and win over the Conservative Party's membership of around 160,000 eligible voters to cast postal ballots in their favour. The winner of that ballot will go on to be elected the new Tory leader and take over from caretaker Boris Johnson as the new British Prime Minister by September 5.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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