British PM race cut to 3 hopefuls as 2 contenders exit contest
(Xinhua) Updated: 2016-07-06 09:11The two men were both in the forefront of the leave campaign. Gove faces being punished by some MPs for the way he allegedly "stabbed Boris in the back." Gove had justified his last minute decision to stand by insisting Johnson was not up to the job of being PM.
Johnson shocked the country with a speech saying he would not stand in the leadership contest.
The result of the ballot of the final two candidates will be announced early in September.
While MPs were busy at Westminster trying to pick the next prime minister, behind-closed-doors talks were taking place over the civil war in the main opposition Labour camp.
Tough-talking union leader Len McCluskey from Liverpool, was attempting to broker a peace between estranged party leader Jeremy Corbyn and the vast majority of his own MPs who have disowned him.
McCluskey, from Britain's biggest union Unite, held separate talks with Corbyn as well as the party's deputy leader Tom Watson.
Buoyed by massive grass-roots support, Corbyn has steadfastly refused to resign, and is likely to face a challenge to the leadership within the next few days if he insists on hanging on.
And while the politicians were busy with their woes at Westminster, the governor of the Bank of England fired off a missile that sent the value of British pound spiral, again, to its lowest level against the US dollar for over 30 years.
Mark Carney delivered a message to reassure the city that measures were being taken to minimize the impact of the Brexit vote.
But most of the commentaries zoomed into the negative parts of his speech, "evidence that some risks of a leave vote have begun to crystallize" and "the current outlook for UK financial stability is challenging," Carney said in his speech.
The headline announcement had been that the Bank of England on Tuesday took steps to ensure British banks can keep lending in the Brexit aftermath. Carney said the bank would lower the amount of capital banks are required to hold in reserve, freeing up an extra 195 billion US dollars for lending.
The political warring may take a back seat Wednesday when MPs study the long awaited Chilcot Report into Britain's involvement in the Iraq War of 2003.
