Rishi Sunak could pull off Brexit surprise in UK PM race: Cabinet supporter

London: With Rishi Sunak behind in pre-poll surveys, one of his ministerial supporters from the UK Cabinet said on Friday that the former Chancellor could still pull off a surprise win over Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in the race to 10 Downing Street similar to the Brexit result of

June 2016.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps pointed to the outcome of the European Union (EU) referendum over six years ago, which most pollsters had predicted would end in Britain voting to remain in the economic bloc.

However, the result on June 23, 2016, confounded most analysts who had also got predictions of a Conservative Party loss or hung Parliament in general elections a year before. We will know who the new Prime Minister is in a little over two weeks, Shapps told Sky News' when asked if it was time for Sunak to concede defeat in the Tory leadership election.

I don't think it would be right for either side to not allow a formal vote to go ahead and if there is one thing we have learned from the last few years is, think of the 2015 election, I was party chairman at the time, everyone said we couldn't win the election," recalled the senior Conservative Party MP. "I think the 2016 Brexit poll where everyone was pretty sure the country was about to vote for remain; I think it would be a very good idea to wait for those who are voting in this contest to complete the vote. As I said, it is only just over a fortnight's time we will know the answer to that, he said, with reference to the September 5 results day when the new Tory leader and Prime Minister will

be declared.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister hopeful Rishi Sunak has said he is excited to keep going in the Conservative Party leadership campaign even as surveys of party voters predict a firm lead for his rival, Foreign Secretary

Liz Truss.