Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak hold 'late night talks'

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak-- two of the candidates in the race to be the UK's next PM, held talks late into the night on Saturday. It has fuelled speculations, that the two could strike a deal. According to BBC, neither camp has ousted what the two discussed. The former prime minister or the former chancellor hasn't officially declared their candidature for the race.

Rishi Sunak supporters claimed on Saturday that the Indian-origin former chancellor has hit the threshold of 100 members of Parliament required to make it to the shortlist for the race to replace Liz Truss as the Conservative Party leader and British Prime Minister.

The 42-year-old frontrunner's tally continues to grow as former prime minister Boris Johnson flew back from his Caribbean holiday and his camp also claimed that he has the requisite minimum of 100 MPs for a possible leadership bid. However, as per the BBC's tally, about 53 MPs have backed Johnson. 

Penny Mordaunt is the only lawmaker to officially announce her candidature. Mordaunt has received the backing of just 23 MPs. If a majority of MPs do not back one candidate, the race will then go to an online ballot of the Conservative party membership, the results of which will be announced on Friday. 

According to The Daily Telegraph, Sunak is expected to reject any offer of a Cabinet role during the leadership race, given he is the frontrunner and had resigned from a Johnson government once already this year.

Sunak is being urged to offer Johnson a Cabinet role, such as home secretary, to agree to get him to stand back ahead of any voting with Tory members.

Sunak had stormed ahead in the initial round of voting among Tory MPs and lost to Truss in the leadership contest last month in the vote by the 170,000 Tory membership, who either favoured Truss' now-failed tax-cutting pledges or viewed Sunak as having hastened Johnson's downfall by resigning as chancellor.

--With PTI inputs