Theresa May has announced she will set out a timetable for her resignation after putting for the fourth time her deal to the attention of Parliament in June. This means the Conservative Party leadership contest will likely take place during the summer, with their official coronation falling at the yearly autumn party conference in Birmingham. Mr Johnson, the former Foreign Secretary who last July resigned in protest of Mrs May’s soft Brexit plans drafted at Chequers, has announced yesterday he will run for the post.
But almost a dozen more people are expected to throw their hats into the ring within the next weeks.
The next Conservative Party leader will have the chance to shape Britain’s future outside of the European Union and the future relationship between London and Brussels.
And Express.co.uk’s readers have expressed their views over who would be the best senior Tory to replace Mrs May.
READ MORE: EU PANIC: Brussels rocked by ‘DESPAIR’ over future role of Farage and Boris Johnson
Brexiteer Mr Johnson came in first, receiving 5,955 votes in a survey carried out on May 17 by 11,044 people.
One reader explained why he considers the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip the best option available, saying: “Boris as he’s probably the only one with enough and to pull us out under WTO.”
Mr Johnson was followed by Dominic Raab, the former Brexit Secretary who, like his predecessor David Davis, quit because he could not back Mrs May’s Brexit plans.
Mr Raab received 2,134 votes.
However, the poll’s results revealed that as many as 1,126 voters may not be backing any of the Tories who have had a ministerial role and are most likely to put their name forward for the leadership contest.
Some of those who chose the ‘Others’ option indicated in the comments they would like to see Steve Baker, the deputy chair of the eurosceptic Conservative movement European Research Group (ERG), as next Tory leader.
One reader wrote: “Why is Steve Baker not on that list?
“I would have either Baker or Raab, both of them were steadfast on delivering the Brexit people voted for.”
And another said: “None of these listed are true ‘leavers’.
“They all voted for May’s surrender treaty AT LEAST ONCE.
“Who’s to say they wouldn’t turn their coat again?
“There are others far more honourable: Patel, Redwood, Paterson, Baker, Francois, and so on.
“The Conservatives need one of them.”
However, many of the readers who chose the third-most voted option revealed they feel let down by Tory MPs and the Conservative Party as a whole – and said they will instead back Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party at the next general election.
One said: “I did want Boris But I don’t care now I have moved to the Brexit Party and not going back.”
Another said: “Sir Nigel Farage, and nobody else will do.”
And a third added: “The Tory Party knows that if they don’t vote in a STRONG Brexiteer with conviction next time, they have no chance of winning the next election.”
Mrs May, accused by one of the poll’s voters to have “single-handedly destroyed the party”, was given an ultimatum by the powerful 1922 Committee on Thursday, when she was told she could either confirm she would quit during the summer with or without a Brexit deal in place or be forced out by Tory backbenchers.
A statement issued by Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 committee, on behalf of the executive and Mrs May, said the Prime Minister was “devoting her efforts” to securing the crucial second reading of the Brexit bill.
But he added: “We have agreed that she and I will meet following the second reading of the bill to agree a timetable for the election of a new leader of the Conservative and Unionist party.”
