Boris Johnson’s time in office as prime minister will end on September 6 under a timetable agreed Monday evening by Conservative Party bosses.
The U.K. prime minister is set to step down from his role in eight weeks’ time, after a new Tory leader is elected in a ballot of party members ending September 5. Johnson’s anointed successor is likely to take over as Tory leader and U.K. prime minister the following day — Tuesday, September 6.
Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers which decides the leadership timetable, announced the terms on Monday night after the rules were rubber-stamped by the Conservative Party board.
Nominations for the leadership will open and close on Tuesday. Tory leadership hopefuls will need to have secured the support of 20 their MP colleagues by close of play Tuesday to make it onto the ballot paper, ahead of the first vote among Tory MPs the following day, Brady said.
Any candidate with fewer than 30 votes in Wednesday’s initial ballot will be knocked out. A second ballot is then expected to take place Thursday, with either any candidate with fewer than 30 votes, or failing that the last-placed candidate, dropping out.
Johnson was forced to resign last week after losing the support of the bulk of Conservative MPs. Mass ministerial resignations on Wednesday last week, triggered by the exits of his Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Chancellor Rishi Sunak the previous day made it impossible for him to appoint a new government.
The ministerial departures were precipitated by a series of scandals about Johnson’s personal and professional conduct, culminating in a bitter row over the appointment of his Deputy Chief Whip Chris Pincher, a senior government enforcer who resigned this month after being accused of groping two men at a private club.
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