How long will Boris Johnson be Prime Minister after…

How long will Boris Johnson be Prime Minister after his resignation?

Boris Johnson finally announced today he will resign as British Prime Minister. In a speech on the steps of 10 Downing Street, Mr Johnson said he was sad to be ‘giving up the best job in the world’ before adding: “But them's the breaks.”

Mr Johnson had battled on as PM despite narrowly winning a bruising no-confidence vote a month ago - called by his own MPs in response to the Partygate affair and the public’s lack of trust in him. But he has not been able to survive the swathe of high-profile UK Government resignations of the last two days.

The resignations - which included Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid David - came after the Chris Pincher scandal. Mr Pincher was suspended as a Tory MP last week over allegations he groped two men at a private members' club in London.

It emerged Mr Johnson had appointed him as deputy chief whip despite being made aware of his 'inappropriate behaviour’ when Mr Pincher was a Foreign Office minister from 2019 to 2020. The government said the PM was briefed at the time but could not ‘recall this’ when the latest allegations emerged last week.

More than 50 Tory MPs quit their government jobs in the last 48 hours in response to the news. This finally forced Mr Johnson’s hand to resign.

In his speech today, he said: "It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of the party and therefore a new prime minister, and I've agreed with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of our backbench MPs, that the process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week.”

Mr Johnson added he had appointed a new cabinet and intended to carry on as PM until the new leader is in place. His announcement comes after less than three years in the job - despite having won a huge majority in the 2019 general election.

Boris Johnson announcing his resignation today (Getty Images)

How will a new Tory leader be chosen?

Now Mr Johnson has stood down, an election for a new party leader will be triggered. Candidates need the support of eight Conservative MPs to stand.

If there are more than two candidates, Tory MPs will take part in a series of votes until only two remain. When just two are left, all Conservative Party members from across the UK - not just MPs - will vote for the winner.

Whoever wins will become leader of the party. As the Conservative Party has the largest number of MPs in the UK Parliament, the Queen will ask them to form a government as Prime Minister. There will be no automatic general election.

When will the leadership contest take place?

As Mr Johnson said in his statement, the timetable for the leadership contest will be announced next week. In 2019, when his predecessor, Theresa May, resigned on June 7, it took a little over six weeks until Mr Johnson was announced as the winner of the leadership contest on July 23.

A similar timetable would see Mr Johnson serve as Prime Minister until the last week of August.

As of today, he has been in power for two years and 348 days - the 34th longest-reigning British Prime Minister out of 55. If he clings on until late August, he will overtake his predecessor Ms May - who served for three years and 11 days - and is currently 33rd.

Could he go sooner?

Some Tory MPs are calling on him to go as soon as possible to avoid government paralysis. Former minister Sir Bob Neill said there was a ‘serious question mark’ over how long a ‘caretaker’ prime minister could stay in place.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said if the Tories did not ‘get rid’ of Mr Johnson immediately then his party would bring a vote of no confidence ‘in the national interest’.

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