According to the president of the parliamentary group in charge of the selection process, Graham Brady, the list of candidates was made up of Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat and Nadhim Zahawi.

All of them, he said, obtained the support of at least 20 of their 358 co-religionists in the House of Commons, which was the minimum threshold to be nominated.

Former Health Minister Sajid Javid, Transport Minister Grant Shapps and MP Rehman Cishti had to leave the race before the starting shot was fired. The Tory caucus will have the first vote today, and the candidate who does not secure at least 30 votes will be eliminated.

The next round will take place on Thursday, and from then on, the voting will continue until the two most popular contenders are left standing, whose names, Brady said, could be known as soon as next Monday.

The winner will emerge from a ballot in which the party’s 180,000 members will participate through a postal vote.

According to polls and bookmakers, Sunak, who resigned last week as finance minister, and Chancellor Truss would be among the favorites to become the new leader of the Tories, and occupy the post of Prime Minister of the country. .

Johnson, who was forced to resign last Thursday after a series of scandals that called his moral integrity and leadership capacity into question, will remain at 10 Downing Street on an interim basis until his replacement is announced the 5th of September.

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