On July 7, Boris Johnson announced his resignation as the leader of the Conservative Party, thus ending his three year spell as the Prime Minister of the UK. This came after several senior Tory leaders resigned from his government due to Johnson's overall performance as the British Prime Minister. With his resignation, there is a vacancy at 10 Downing Street, London. A leadership race now takes place within the Conservative Party as the top MPs aim for the Prime Minister's chair.
With Johnson stepping down as the Tory leader mid-way, the UK would not have a country-wide general election for choosing its new Prime Minister. This time, there will be internal rounds of voting within the Conservative Party where the Tory members will be voting for the next party leader, who will go on to succeed Boris Johnson as the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. But how are the Tories voting for their next leader?
The Top Eight
Following the vacancy for Conservative Party's leadership, eight senior Tory MPs announced their candidature as the next leader of the Conservative Party. The candidates included Rishi Sunak, Peny Mordaunt, Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat, Suella Braverman, Nadhim Zahawi and Jeremy Hunt.
These eight candidates had to go through a secret ballot voting on July 13, where 358 Conservative Party MPs voted in the first round. The two least-voted candidates would be out, narrowing down the leadership race from eight to six candidates. Each candidate had to secure at least 30 votes.
After the first round of voting, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak led the race with the highest number of votes, securing 88 votes ahead of Trade Policy Minister Penny Mordaunt, who secured 67 votes. Liz Truss came third with 50 votes while Kemi Badenoch secured 40 votes. Tom Tugendhat got 37 votes and Suella Braverman came last with 32 votes.
The newly appointed Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi got votes from 25 Tory leaders while cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt got the backing of 18 Tory leaders. These two were eliminated from the leadership race after receiving the least number of votes.
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The Eliminators
The second round of voting took place on July 14, when the 358 Tory lawmakers will vote for the remaining six candidates. This time, Rishi Sunak also ended as the topper after securing 101 votes. His closest opponent Penny Mordaunt got 83 votes this time, followed by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss securing 64 Tory votes.
Kemi Badenoch remained safe in the elimination round with 49 votes along with Lawmaker Tom Tugendhat who just crossed the 30-plus mark, securing 32 votes. Attorney General Suella Braverman was eliminated from the leadership race after getting just 27 votes.
Further ballots will take place in the coming week where the bottom-ranked candidate of each round would be eliminated. Based on the number of candidates, this process goes on for one-two week. This process goes on until the party will get its final two candidates, who will contest each other to secure leadership of the party and later, the British government.
According to the timetable set by the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, the Conservative Party needs to wrap up the rounds of voting by July 21 to shortlist the final two candidates for the Prime Minister's chair.
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The Finals
Following the rounds of voting by July 21, the Conservative Party will get its final two candidates for party leadership. This marks the beginning of the final round, where the final two candidates will be conducting their 'hustings'
Hustings refer to the campaign the final candidates will go for, where they usually go for speeches before the voters. The candidates would be organising a series of hustings in various parts of the UK, where they will present their manifesto and campaign pledges to the party membership.
This time, the election between the final two would be done by the approximate 200,000 Conservative Party individual members spanning across the UK. Following the Hustings, the 200,000 Tory members across the UK will vote for the candidates through a postal ballot. The members will get their ballot papers in August.
The final results will be announced on September 5 where the final shortlisted candidate, who has secured the most number of votes from the 200,000 Tory party members will be declared as the new leader of the Conservative Party and thus, the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
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The Queen's Gambit
While Boris Johnson has resigned as the Tory leader, he will be the incumbent Prime Minister till September 5. After the final voting gets over, his tenure as a Prime Minister will officially come to an end.
As per traditions, Johnson will appear before the House of Commons and outside 10 Downing Street for the last time before heading to Buckingham Palace. After this, he will be placing his resignation before Queen Elizabeth II. The palace will release a statement saying the Queen is "pleased to accept" Johnson's resignation.
Once his car departs from Buckingham Palace, the newly elected Tory leader would enter the palace to seek permission from the Head of State to form a new government. Upon the Queen's acceptance, the United Kingdom will have its new Prime Minister.
The Contenders
Rishi Sunak is currently ahead in the leadership race after securing 88 votes from his parliamentary colleagues, out of a total of 358 Tory MPs. But the final call will be made by the voters which consist of the Conservative Party membership base.
According to reports, the base which gets to have the final say is building momentum behind Penny Mordaunt, who came second in the first round of voting after securing 67 votes. Moreover, Sunak's resignation from the government has received criticism from party members.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory MP for North East Somerset and Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency criticised Sunak for being "disloyal" to Boris Johnson. In an interview with Sky News, he said, "I couldn't support someone who has been so disloyal to Boris Johnson. If you're bound by collective responsibility, you should stick to that whilst you're in the cabinet".