Britain is getting a new Prime Minister: Here's how the process works
While he gave a deadline of early October to find his successor, an influential committee of Tory MPs, known as the 1922 Committee, said the process will be completed by September 2.
This is to allow the successful person a month in the job before the Tory party conference held in the first week of October.
Increasingly British politics has come to be dominated by internal party politics so it is worth understanding their processes and rules.
Barclays analysts compiled a short guide to how the Conservatives will pick a new leader both for their party and for Britain. Here's how it looks:
- A potential candidate must be nominated in writing by two Conservative MPs, with nominations closing on Thursday 30 June at midday, and a list of valid candidates is subsequently published.
- If there is only one valid candidate, that person is declared elected.
- If there are only two valid candidates, both names go forward to the grassroots membership of the Conservative Party.
- If there are more than two valid candidates, a ballot is held amongst the Parliamentary Party (the MPs) on the Tuesday immediately following the closing date for nominations (in this case, Tuesday 5 July 2016).
- An exhaustive ballot system is used to select two candidates to go forward to the grassroots membership. This means that if there are more than three official candidates, candidates will be whittled down until only two candidates remain.
- When two candidates are put forward to the grassroots membership for selection, voting occurs by postal ballot on a 'one member one vote' basis. This is to occur as soon as is practicable after the date of the last ballot in the Parliamentary Party.
- To be eligible to vote, a person must be a member of the Conservative Party for not less than three months prior to the close of the grassroots membership ballot for the election. Estimates suggest there are approximately 150,000 eligible members.
Currently nine Tory MPs are scrambling to win party support for a leadership bid, including Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Liam Fox. Let the games begin.