Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak is set to be announced the new leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom next week. It will be 55 days of Tory infighting that has shown how out of touch the party is on the main issues facing the country at such an important time.
The person picked by Conservative members to become their leader might not even enjoy a majority of support among the party's own MPs. While Rishi Sunak led his rival candidates in every round of voting among Tory MPs, it is Liz Truss who is more popular among the membership, according to polls.
The election to choose a new leader of the Conservatives was open to all party members who joined on or before June 3, but the precise number who received a ballot paper is not public knowledge, because the Tories do not publish data on party membership.
Nearly 140,000 votes were cast in the Tory leadership election in summer 2019, when Boris Johnson won 92,153 votes and Jeremy Hunt won 46,656, with 509 spoiled ballots. Here's a timeline of events from when the ballot closes to when the next Prime Minister will be announced.
Monday, September 5
The winner of the contest will be announced on Monday at 12.30pm – the date when Parliament returns – by Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbench MPs. The candidate who receives the most votes from Tory party members will become the new Conservative Party leader, and therefore Prime Minister.
The new leader – widely expected to be Liz Truss – is expected to make a speech following the announcement and then spend the rest of the day finalising their choices for Cabinet and writing their first prime ministerial speech. Boris Johnson will remain Prime Minister until the following day.
Tuesday, September 6
Usually the transfer of power would involve the outgoing Prime Minister going from Downing Street to Buckingham Palace to resign, followed by their successor travelling from Whitehall to the palace to be appointed. But in a break with tradition, Johnson and his successor will go to Balmoral for the ceremony, robbing TV stations of live helicopter shots as the PM’s car travels up the Mall to the Palace.
Johnson is due to make a statement outside No 10 about 9am on Tuesday, before taking a flight to Aberdeen and being driven to Balmoral and resigning about 11.30am. He will probably travel separately from Truss, who will be swiftly appointed in the drawing room of Balmoral about midday by the 96-year-old monarch, before returning to Downing Street to make a speech as Prime Minister, possibly about 4pm.
After that, they will be expected to make senior Cabinet appointments and hold meetings with senior civil servants to be given nuclear codes, and for updates on matters of national security. A highly-anticipated reshuffle could be pushed into the late evening if the new PM wants to meet and greet their new team from London as opposed to over the phone.
Wednesday, September 7
Hold onto your hats for the first outing in the Commons for the new Prime Minister at midday. The opposition reaction will be interesting but not as telling as that from the Tory backbenches over the next few weeks, as the new leader tries to unite the party and respond effectively to the cost of living crisis
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