About the contest
Britain’s new prime minister will be announced by 5 September, after Conservative party members vote on the two candidates chosen by Conservative MPs.
Candidates initially needed the backing of 20 MPs to even stand in the ballot, a threshold that three leadership hopefuls – Sajid Javid, Grant Shapps and Rehman Chishti – failed to achieve. In the first ballot, for which a candidate needed the backing of a minimum of 30 MPs, Jeremy Hunt and Nadhim Zahawi were eliminated.
Candidates are whittled down by a series of voting rounds in which the last-placed candidate will be knocked out, until just two are left to face the membership.
If one of the two final candidates drops out, the other would become leader without a membership ballot, but candidates have been asked to give assurances they will not do this.
Source: Guardian
