Here’s How a New U.K. Prime Minister Will Be Selected

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s premiership is coming to an end, he announced Thursday, as a wave of resignations in his cabinet left his position as leader untenable. Sexual misconduct allegations made against a senior lawmaker in Johnson’s government was just the latest in a series of scandals to strain the leader’s relationship with his party. After at least 50 lawmakers and government officials resigned in protest over a 48-hour period, Johnson said on Thursday that he would resign but remain until his party has chosen a new leader. But even his ability to hold onto office in the interim remains a question-mark. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Below, what happens next, and how U.K. leaders are chosen: Read more: Boris Johnson Has Resigned. Here’s How He Lost Britain’s Government How long will Johnson stay? Although Johnson said he will stay on until a new Conservative party leader is selected, there are growing calls for him to depart immediately. In that case, another member of his party will temporarily assume the role of caretaker prime minister. Some names that have been floated include Deputy Prime minister Dominic Raab. It will take weeks for Conservatives to select a new party leader. Because the Conservative party has a majority in the U.K. parliament, the winner of the party leadership contest will automatically become prime minister. How is the new Conservative leader selected? Under usual circumstances, British prime ministers are chosen in a general election held every five years. Instead of voting for the nation’s leader directly, as is the case in presidential electoral systems, the public chooses between delegates of each party to represent their local area, known as a constituency. The party that wins the most constituencies wins the election, and the leader of that party typically becomes the prime minister. The Conservatives have a strong majority in parliament with 358 of 650 seats, after winning the 2019 general election under Johnson’s leadership. Party leaders are chosen by an internal process normally in advance of a general election, or in the case that a leader steps down or is forced out. To take part in the race, a Conservative member of parliament needs to be nominated by at least eight colleagues. Likely candidates to follow Johnson include former finance minister Rishi Sunak, former defense secretary Ben Wallace, and former health secretary Sajid Javid, among others. A winner is selected from the nominated individuals in a two-stage process. Read more: Who Could Replace Boris Johnson As U.K. Prime Minister? First, MPs whittle the candidates down in a series of secret ballots, whereby the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated at each round until two are remaining. In the second stage, card-carrying grassroots party members vote on the final two candidates. (It’s possible that it never goes to a final run-off, as was the case in 2017, after May’s opponents were eliminated or eventually withdrew.) Anyone in the U.K. can become a member of a party, provided that they pay a membership fee—which is £25 ($30) for the Conservatives. The Conservative party has around 200,000 members. This means that the final decision to select Johnson’s successor will be made by roughly 0.29% of the British population. Grassroots party members haven’t always been able to influence the outcome of leadership contests. In 1998, the Conservatives decided to hand some of the power over to the rank and file, partly to embolden grassroots supporters and reverse decades of plummeting membership numbers. Although the new process helps to decentralize party politics, low membership levels mean that Conservative voter values may not be accurately represented by card-carrying members. The timeline for choosing a new leader In 2019, when Theresa May resigned as prime minister, the internal party voting process took six weeks, resulting in Boris Johnson becoming leader after beating rival Jeremy Hunt. Before the process starts, there may be a period of time for candidates to campaign. In his resignation statement, Johnson said that a timeline for the contest will be released next week. What does this mean for British voters? There is no fixed date for the next general election, but it is expected in late 2024 or early 2025. Leaders of the Conservative party can resign at any point, or be forced out by a vote of no-confidence from MPs. (Johnson survived a confidence vote by 211 votes to 148 on June 6, and May twice, first by 200 votes to 117 in December 2018 and again by 325 votes to 306 in a parliamentary-wide challenge in January 2019.) In any case, a new Conservative leader may decide to call an early general election to bolster their mandate among the general public. This avenue is a gamble, however. Although Johnson won a large majority after the December 2019 election, allowing him to push through his Brexit agenda, May’s decision to call a snap election in 2017 resulted in the Conservative party losing its parliamentary majority—and contributed to the Brexit impasse that led her to resign in June later that year. (May took over after her predecessor, David Cameron, resigned in the wake of U.K. voters opting to back “Leave” in the June 2016 Brexit referendum.) In his resignation statement on Thursday, Johnson cautioned against the idea of a snap general election, saying it didn’t make sense when the Conservatives are “delivering so much and [with] such vast mandates, when the economic scene is so difficult domestically and internationally.”