The British Conservative Party will elect a new leader on Monday and with it a new prime minister for the United Kingdom. The battle is between two (former) cabinet members from the cabinet of outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson: Foreign Minister Liz Truss and former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak. Truss seems to have the best chances at first. Partly because of her loyalty to Prime Minister Johnson – Sunak resigned in early July out of dissatisfaction with Johnson’s leadership, Truss remained – she is safely ahead in polls.
After a string of scandals, Johnson announced his departure as Conservative leader and prime minister in early July, but will remain in office until his party elects a new leader. In the British system, there are no new national elections immediately when a prime minister resigns. Instead, the party that has the majority, in this case the Conservative Party, elects a new leader and prime minister for the country.
It is not clear exactly how many members the Conservative Party has: the party is not open about that. The British broadcaster BBC estimates it to be about 160,000 people, about 0.3 percent of all British voters. These Tories, as they are also called, are generally relatively old, predominantly white, and more likely than average to be from the British middle class. This is also the case for members of other major British political parties.
balmoral
After a elimination race of weeks in which eight candidates initially participated, Truss and Sunak are still left. Only the Tories who were members before June 3 this year could vote until last Friday. The outcome of this ballot will be announced by the Conservative Party at the beginning of the British afternoon. At around 1.30 pm Dutch time it is clear who the new British prime minister is.
Following the announcement, Johnson and the newly elected leader will traditionally depart for Queen Elizabeth, where Johnson will tender his resignation. This time with a trip to Scotland, things are a little different than usual. Due to her frail health, the Queen is staying at her holiday home in Balmoral, rather than at London’s Buckingham Palace.
Read more about the two remaining candidates: Loyalty to Johnson puts Truss ahead in leadership race