London: Britain will find out who will be the new Prime Minister between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt Tuesday as the votes of a leadership race to replace Theresa May as Conservative Party leader are tallied up.
Johnson, the former foreign secretary and London Mayor, is widely expected to beat foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt in the battle for 10 Downing Street, which was triggered last month when a Brexit-battered May announced her resignation amid a mounting rebellion from within the Conservative Party.
The new leader is then expected to make a brief victory statement but is not set to take formal charge until Wednesday, once May has driven up to Buckingham Palace to tender her resignation to Queen Elizabeth II.
Johnson, 55, has been the frontrunner in the race ever since a group of Tory MPs put their hat in the ring for the first phase of the leadership election within the Conservative parliamentary party.
The vote to choose between the two final candidates with the most backing then went head to head before the wider Conservative Party membership up and down the country. The Tory membership base, estimated to be around 160,000, had until Monday night to get their postal ballots in to the party’s influential 1922 Committee – in charge of the poll process.
Hunt, 52, had pegged himself as the underdog in the race who, as an entrepreneur himself, had the negotiating skills required to lead the Tories through the tough phase ahead of meeting the October 31 deadline for Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU).
The two contenders clashed in a number of hustings around the UK, with Johnson’s refusal to the prospect of a chaotic no-deal Brexit off the table exposing the divisions within the Tory party even further.
Many Cabinet ministers, including Chancellor Philip Hammond and justice secretary David Gauke, have already said they would step down rather than serve under Johnson as PM with his ‘do or die’ pledge over the Brexit deadline.
Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan became one of the first to step down in opposition of Johnson’s Brexit strategy even before the results are declared.
The new Prime Minister is expected to spend some time finalising his key Cabinet and ministerial posts soon after the results. A number of Brexiteers, including Indian-origin MPs Priti Patel and Rishi Sunak – both supporters of Johnson, are expected to be part of his new team.
Both Johnson and Hunt had made special interventions to reach out to the party’s Indian diaspora base, with Hunt pledging to engage with India to ‘negotiate a free trade agreement’ post-Brexit and Johnson promising a ‘new and improved’ trading relationship with India if he is elected.
The former Mayor of London, who has in the past described himself as a ‘son-in-law of India’ by virtue of his now estranged wife Marina Wheeler’s Indian mother, also played up a strong ‘personal relationship with Prime Minister Modi’.
Johnson’s colourful personal life has been under some scrutiny during the month-long leadership contest, with speculation rife in the UK media on whether his girlfriend Carrie Symonds is likely to join him as partner at 10 Downing Street.
Theresa May, who chaired her last Cabinet meeting Tuesday at Downing Street, will address her final Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday and then be driven to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen.
The 93-year-old monarch will then invite the new PM-elect to form a government, following which he will make his first speech as Prime Minister on the steps of Downing Street Wednesday evening.
The new PM will then chair his first Cabinet meeting a day after, Thursday morning, before the UK Parliament is set to rise for its summer recess until early September.
(PTI)