Britain’s Conservative Party will announce a new leader and future prime minister on September 5, in the first session of parliament after a summer recess, after holding internal elections to choose a successor to Boris Johnson, who announced his resignation last Thursday, although he is still the acting head of government.

To speed up the primaries to remove him from power, the so-called 1922 Committee – which brings together conservative parliamentary groups – has approved new election rules this Monday, after updating its own executive.

The committee, chaired by Graham Brady, has decided that the candidate to replace Johnson will need the support of at least 20 deputies. Toriesof 8 required so far, with the aim of reducing the number of registrants.

The conservative executive has also determined that candidates who do not get at least 30 votes out of the 358 conservative deputies in the House of Commons will be eliminated in the first round of voting, on the 13th.

Base chooses between two finalists

The 1922 Committee plans to hold two knockout rounds this week – Wednesday and Thursday – and will hold more next week if necessary. The goal is to have two finalists before parliament’s summer recess, which starts on July 21, as explained by Graham Brady, the Conservative Party’s chief lawmaker.

The two candidates with the most votes by deputies will then contest the election by mail among those affiliated with the ruling party – some 200,000, according to 2021 data – following the election campaign in August.

This means that nearly 0.30% of the UK’s 67.2 million population will vote for a future prime minister, unless in the coming months the winner calls for early elections, as Labor has called for. Currently, they are planned for 2024.