Rishi Sunak has been announced as the new leader of the Conservative Party and, in doing so, becomes the latest Prime Minister.

The former Chancellor of the Exchequer publicly secured the backing of 197 MPs before, his only remaining rival, Penny Mordaunt withdrew from the contest shortly before the deadline for nomination.

He takes over from Liz Truss whose turbulent few weeks in office saw her mini-budget shock the economy, Kwasi Kwarteng sacked as Chancellor, Suella Braverman resign as Home Secretary and a 24 hours of parliamentary chaos regarding a fracking vote that ultimately brought Truss’ premiership to an end.

Chris Loder, MP for West Dorset, supported Rishi Sunak in the leadership race having last time round backed Truss.

Richard Drax, MP for South Dorset, declared himself a supporter of Boris Johnson though the former Prime Minister declined to run.

Neither Mr Drax nor Mr Loder were available for comment following the announcement that Mr Sunak had become the new Prime Minister.

Instead, we’ve taken a look back at some of their comments from the past year about the policies and personality of the new PM.

Chris Loder, in backing Sunak’s candidacy, said he was the right man to deliver ‘political’ and ‘economic’ stability for the nation.

The West Dorset MP has made very few public statements regarding the former Chancellor but did applaud his clampdown of the second homes tax loophole and praised his “unprecedented” and “bold series of measures” throughout the pandemic.

Mr Drax, meanwhile, has been more outspoken over the course of the last year, Whilst he praised the, then Chancellor, for his decision to raise National Insurance in March this year he suggested that he could have gone further in lowering taxes.

In May, Mr Drax criticised Sunak’s decision to introduce a windfall-tax saying it was “throwing red meat to socialists”.

He said: “I warn my right hon. Friend that throwing red meat to socialists by raising taxes on businesses and telling them where to invest their money is not the Conservative way of encouraging those who create our prosperity and jobs to do just that.

“Does he agree that by setting this bar we are in danger, were we ever to lose power, of allowing the socialists to raise it, which they would do with relish again, again, and again?”