Britain’s prime ministerial race entered its final phase as voting closes on Monday evening for counting to begin before Theresa May’s successor is unveiled on Tuesday.
The frontrunner throughout the contest has been former foreign secretary Boris Johnson as the Conservative Party’s over 160,000 members up and down the UK filed in their postal votes to decide between him and the current foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt.
They have until 1700 local time to ensure their ballot papers have been submitted in the election after which the counting process is set to begin, with the party’s influential 1922 Committee in charge of the election of the new Tory leader who will take charge at Downing Street.
In terms of timeline, May will carry on as caretaker PM for a few days still as she is set to address her final Prime Minister’s Questions session in the House of Commons on Wednesday after which she will head to Buckingham Palace to formally offer her resignation to Queen Elizabeth II.
The 93-year-old monarch will then meet the newly-elected Conservative Party leader and invite him to form a new government. The new PM then traditionally makes a statement on the steps of 10 Downing Street before taking official charge before Parliament’s summer recess is set to kick off from Friday until early September.
In one of final major prime ministerial acts, May is chairing the government’s emergency Cobra meeting on Monday after a British-flagged tanker was seized by Iran in the Gulf last week.
She will receive updates from ministers and officials on the crisis since the vessel and its crew, including Indian nationals, was seized.