Rishi Sunak is set to become Britain’s prime minister replacing Liz Truss, who resigned last week after an economic upheaval. She had been in office for less than two months.

Sunak had earlier got majority endorsement from the Conservative Party after one of the contenders, Boris Johnson, pulled out of the party leadership race to replace Truss

Sunak – who served as Chancellor under Johnson –emerged as the frontrunner in the Tory leadership race. This left Sunak in race with Penny Mordaunt

A few minutes to announcing the final results, Mordaunt pulled out of the contest to lead the Conservative Party making Sunak the sole person vying for the job.

Mordaunt, got a minority backing of less than 30 MPs. A candidate requires nominations from at least 100 MPs to stand in the race.

Johnson had raced home from a holiday in the Caribbean to try and secure the backing of 100 legislators to enter the contest to replace Truss, the person who succeeded him in September after he was forced to quit over a string of scandals.

He said late on Sunday that he had secured the backing of 102 legislators and could have been "back in Downing Street”, but that he had failed to persuade either Sunak or the other contender Mordaunt, to come together "in the national interest”.

"I believe I have much to offer but I am afraid that this is simply not the right time,” Johnson said.

The former prime minister had secured the public backing of just less than 60 Conservative legislators by Sunday.

Johnson’s statement likely paves the way for his archrival, the 42-year-old Sunak, to become prime minister.

Truss, who was forced to resign after she launched an economic programme that triggered turmoil in financial markets. According to the rules, if only one candidate secures the backing of 100 Conservative legislators.