British lawmaker Andrea Leadsom has emerged as the top pro-Brexit candidate to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron earning slightly more support than Conservative lawmakers Michael Gove, a chief campaigner for the "Leave" campaign.
The surge in support for Leadsom signals a break in the ranks among proponents of exiting the European Union in the wake of former London Mayor Boris Johnson pulling his name out of contention earlier this week and potentially opening the door for the country to avert abandoning the EU altogether.
Online bookmaker William Hill now has Leadsom as the second-favorite to succeed Cameron at 5/2 odds, behind interior minister Theresa May, an ardent supporter of the "Remain" campaign, who continues to be the 2/5 favorite.
Michael Gove and Boris Johnson are not the only politicians to fall out of favor in the wake of Brexit which sent markets reeling erasing over $3 trillion in wealth before stocks rebounded on investor hopes that Britain may parachute out of their current predicament by installing a pro-Remain Prime Minister.
Labour opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has effectively been disowned by his party with parliamentarians rushing together a coup to knock him out of the leadership position despite a swell of support from liberal activists who favor the elderly far-right politician who has been called Britain’s Bernie Sanders.
Perhaps the ultimate loser in the ordeal was both Brexit’s chief architect and leading opponent David Cameron who promised the vote to secure his position against an uprising against his agenda of fiscal austerity only to have his legacy savaged as potentially the worst Prime Minister in British history who singlehandedly brought about the end of both the European Union and the UK as we know it.
The final fallout remains to be seen with Holyrood clamoring for a new referendum on Scotland seceding from the UK, a vote they are quite certain they will win if Britain does decide to leave the European economic zone that so many Scottish workers rely upon.
For the sake of holding the country together, Theresa May appears to have the inside lane on replacing David Cameron, but with Leadsom receiving the endorsement of former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan and in light of recent history the only thing that is certain in British politics today is to expect the unexpected.
