Britain’s Boris Johnson confirmed Thursday he will seek to become prime minister when Theresa May quits, reports said, as she promised to set out a departure timetable early next month.
“Of course I’m going to go for it,” the former Foreign Minister, ex-mayor of London and leading Brexit campaigner told a business event in Manchester, northwest England, the BBC and Sky News reported.
The decision comes as little surprise as Johnson, one of Britain’s most identifiable politicians known simply as “Boris”, has long been known to covet the top job.
But it effectively fires the starting gun on a race that already has more than a dozen runners and riders — even though there is no official vacancy.
May has promised to step down once the first stage of Britain’s exit from the European Union is secured, but this has been put in doubt by repeated Brexit delays.