Rishi Sunak is to be the UK's third Prime Minister in just two months after Penny Mordaunt withdrew from the Conservative leadership race.

The former Chancellor had the backing of more than 150 MPs when his rival threw in the towel this afternoon and offered him her "full support".

Here, Political Editor Paul Francis assesses what a government under Rishi Sunak could mean for the key issues in Kent....

When he resigned as Chancellor in a move which eventually led to the enforced departure of Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak told the then PM that the approaches of the two men were “fundamentally too different”.

In his resignation letter he wrote: “I firmly believe the public are ready to hear that truth. Our people know that if something is too good to be true then it’s not true. They need to know that whilst there is a path to a better future, it is not an easy one.”

So, what is that path to a better future, and what does it mean for Kent? Sunak's 10-point plan underlines that, so far as the economy is concerned, the UK’s departure from the EU is key.

A committed Leaver, his manifesto states that he would “keep Brexit safe and deliver the opportunities that Brexit gives us” - not good news for the 73% of KentOnline readers who say the county has been "absolutely walloped" by our exit from the EU.

He has also made a pledge to scrap “all EU laws that hold the economy back before the next election”.

However, he has been more positive about immigration, arguing that "appropriate immigration can benefit our country....but we must have control of our borders".

Finding a way to stem the numbers crossing the Channel into Kent has been a priority for the government and remains so, but Sunak will have his work cut out.

The number of people risking the dangerous crossing this year has already hit more than 38,000 - about 10,000 more than in the entirety of 2021.

Sunak says he would create a small-boats taskforce to “coordinate the response to every step of an illegal migrant’s journey - from the upstream operations of smuggling gangs to detention in the UK”.

But as well as coping with the small boats issue, the new prime minister will also have to deal with industry demands for more migrant workers to be given visas to come to the UK, with labour shortages one of the main concerns voiced by employers across a range of sectors, including in Kent.

On the government's plans to process asylum applications in Rwanda, there have been reports that as Chancellor he tried to block the policy on the grounds of the predicted costs of £120 million.

Another immediate concern in Kent will be to address the misgivings of businesses and the Channel ports over a new system of digitised checks set to be introduced in 2023.

MPs have been warned there could be another summer of disruption and delays for travellers crossing the Channel from Dover.

Port chiefs say new checks on passengers without an EU passport could take as long as 10 minutes for each vehicle, compared to the current two minute.

The chief executive of the Port of Dover, Doug Bannister, recently told MPs there had yet to be a trial of new technology and warned the extra time involved in carrying out the checks “could cause significant and prolonged disruption for a very long time”.

As to the alternatives to Operation Brock and keeping traffic moving, the former Chancellor has acknowledged there is an issue, but has not gone beyond that - though neither did any of his rivals.

With the government facing criticism over plans to introduce so-called ‘investment zones” to boost jobs and growth, Sunak will also have to find a way to balance the need to kickstart the economy and protect the environment and greenbelt land in the Garden of England.

His “Ten Point Plan” outlines a pledge to ensure building homes on brownfield sites comes first, but there is also a commitment to “faster development of homes with planning permission”.

Attempting to do both - with tens of thousands of new homes earmarked across Kent - will be quite the task.

During the previous leadership campaign, he said: “We’re all Conservatives and we believe in home ownership, but getting consent for the number of homes we need is a challenge.”

A more immediate concern will be what - if anything - can be done to assist homeowners facing unexpected mortgage hikes as they come to the end of deals. Will there be a lifeline for those already struggling in the face of the cost-of-living crisis?

It seems unlikely given his previous statements on the issue, in which he emphasised that his key focus was to keep down the government’s own borrowing costs.

On the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda, he courted controversy when he claimed at a hustings meeting in Tunbridge Wells that he had changed the formulas used to allocate money to hard-pressed areas.

He told activists that he had stepped in to stop money "being shovelled up north" and taking it away from places like Kent.

This unsavoury approach could bolster the chances of levelling up bids in the county - including in Canterbury, Medway and Sheerness - but at what cost?

On the totemic issue of grammar schools, Sunak has been circumspect, maintaining that he supports them but would not lift the existing prohibition on opening new ones.

The issue is not referred to at all in his manifesto - instead, it promises that “all young people can get a world-class education by creating a new British Baccalaureate to end the over-specialisation in A-levels”.

With the climate and net-zero targets rising up the political agenda, he has made one key pledge - on windfarms. To minimise what is described as the distress and disruption that onshore windfarms can often cause, he has promised to scrap plans to relax the ban on onshore windfarms in England, providing certainty to rural communities.

Amid all the political fallout, perhaps the one thing most voters want is for the debate to end and the government to start acting and delivering.

Away from the key issues in Kent, what will having Sunak at the helm of a new government mean for the county's MPs?

Those with official jobs - albeit at a relatively low level - could find themselves out of roles they have had for a matter of weeks.

Tonbridge and Malling MP Tom Tugendhat was recently appointed security minister, and - as someone who backed Sunak - it would be a major shock if he was not to remain in that role.

For others there is a little more uncertainty.

Rochester and Strood MP Kelly Tolhurst and Dartford's Gareth Johnson were both appointed to ministerial roles by Liz Truss in September; Tolhurst as Minister of State for education and Johnson as Minister of State for the courts.

With both initially backing Johnson's return as leader, it remains to be seen if they will keep these positions.

Folkestone and Hythe MP Damian Collins - the Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy in the department for Digital Culture Media and Sport - backed Penny Mordaunt's bid, so may also find himself nudged aside to make way for a Sunak supporter.

As to the North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale, he took it upon himself to resume his unofficial role as Boris Johnson’s tormenter in chief.

He took to Twitter to say that he would quit as a Tory MP and stand as an independent if Johnson was to to return to Downing Street.

Was this a political tipping point? We shall never know.