Cameron’s resignation sets off leadership scramble

PICKING A REPLACEMENT

BRITISH PRIME Minister David Cameron’s decision to resign after losing the referendum vote on European Union membership will set off an intense Conservative Party leadership battle.

Cameron said a new prime minister should be in place by a party conference in October. That means the party must choose a leader, who would become PM.

Among the possible contenders are former London Mayor Boris Johnson and Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who both helped lead the campaign to leave the EU, and Home Secretary Theresa May.

Johnson praised Cameron — whose political career he had just helped end — and didn’t address if he would become a candidate for the spot. He called his old university classmate “one of the most extraordinary politicians of our age” and praised Cameron’s “bravery” for calling the referendum vote.

Political analysts and commentators have consistently said Johnson hoped to use a vote in favor of a British exit, or Brexit, as a launching pad for national leadership.

Other Cabinet members are likely to contend as well. Conservative Party rules call for the party’s members of Parliament to choose two candidates through a series of ballots, and then the entire party’s membership will choose between those two.

If only one candidate surfaces by the close of nominations, he or she is declared the leader and the choice then must be ratified by the party membership as a whole.

Political scientist Tim Bale at Queen Mary, University of London, said Johnson is the favourite because of the “huge momentum” generated by the result of the referendum.

“He was seen as the face of the victorious ‘leave’ campaign,” Bale said. “He has an awful lot of support in the Conservative Party membership. I cannot see how MPS will not vote him...” AP