Some of the Conservative MPs vying to take over from Boris Johnson appear to have started making serious plans before the prime minister announced he was stepping down, Sky News has discovered.
Former chancellor Rishi Sunak officially launched his campaign on Friday, three days after he resigned, with a slick video in which he talks about his family and time in politics so far.
Mr Sunak’s official website, ready4rishi.com, was registered the day before Mr Johnson resigned, open source information shows.
It was created at 10:32pm on Wednesday 6 July – not long after the prime minister had sacked Michael Gove at 8:59pm and moments before Simon Hart announced he was stepping down as Wales secretary.
At that stage, Mr Johnson had not made a final decision to quit, it has been reported, despite a wave of ministerial resignations.
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There is also a web address called readyforrishi.com which was registered on 23 December 2021.
If you type that into a browser, it redirects to ready4rishi.com.
Mr Sunak’s campaign team has reportedly denied owning readyforrishi.com, saying that addresses set up by other people had been transferred to them.
Nevertheless, Mr Sunak’s campaign Twitter account is named Ready For Rishi, rather than Ready 4 Rishi.
There has also been speculation that his smartly produced campaign video may have taken longer than two days to make, though Mr Sunak’s team has reportedly insisted it was put together in 48 hours.
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Mr Sunak was tardy compared to Penny Mordaunt, however, who registered her website when Theresa May was prime minister and Ms Mordaunt was defence secretary.
The address pm4pm.com was registered in May 2019, two months before Mrs May resigned as PM.
It has led to speculation that Ms Mordaunt considered standing in the 2019 leadership contest, which Boris Johnson won.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss formally announced she was standing for the party leadership on Sunday night.
Her website, lizforleader.co.uk, was registered on 8 June – two days after Boris Johnson narrowly survived a vote of confidence among Tory MPs.
Despite supporting Mr Johnson at the time, the website registration suggests Ms Truss felt he had been seriously damaged and might not remain in Number 10.
Meanwhile Tom Tugendhat’s campaign website, timefortugendhat.com, was registered on 9 July, the day after he announced he was running to be Conservative Party leader and thus prime minister.
