Next PM will be named on September 5

THE next Conservative Prime Minister will be chosen by September 5, the party’s backbench leader announced last night.

Nominations will open and close today, with the first ballot tomorrow and the second on Thursday, Sir Graham Brady said.

The head of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers said he expected it would be a ‘lively contest’.

Each contender would need the backing of 20 Tory MPs to be on the first ballot tomorrow.

Rishi Sunak is currently in the lead with 40 supporters, while Penny Mor

‘Should be a lively contest’

daunt is second at 26. Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, was last night said to have met the 20-vote threshold needed to get on the ballot.

To reach the second ballot on Thursday, a candidate would need to have the backing of 30 Conservative MPs to make it through.

This vote would whittle the field down to the final two candidates – but a further ballot will follow on Monday if this has not been achieved.

The final two to make it through would then compete for the support of Tory party members who will vote in a postal ballot.

The decision was announced by Sir Graham last night after a meeting of the Conservative Party’s executive board.

So far, a total of 11 candidates have declared their intention to be party leader and therefore Prime Minister. The only contestant to have met the requirement to reach the second round so far is Mr Sunak.

The aim is to cut the number of candidates to three or four before the end of this week through a series of ‘knockout’ votes. A final shortlist of two will then be chosen by MPs before the Commons begins summer recess on July 21.

Boris Johnson will remain as caretaker Prime Minister until Conservative members elect a new leader from the shortlist.

The aim is to complete the process before MPs return to Westminster on September 5.

Mr Johnson has said he would not endorse any of the leadership candidates. ‘That’s not the job of the Prime Minister at this stage,’ he added.

‘The job of the Prime Minister at this stage is to let the party decide, let them get on with it and to continue delivering on the projects that we were elected to deliver.’ Sir Graham said the reasoning for demanding 20 backers for each person is to not make it impossible for ‘any serious candidate’. He said: ‘We thought 20 was a number that anybody who has got real support ought to be able to secure.

‘We also want to make sure that we can move smoothly and responsibly quickly through the process, and we didn’t want to have a cast of thousands in the election.’