Tory leadership election: Boris Johnson vs Jeremy Hunt - who will be Prime Minister?
BORIS JOHNSON and Jeremy Hunt Michael Gove are left vying for the position of Prime Minister today, as the first phase of the leadership vote comes to a close. Who will be the next Prime Minister?
Boris Johnson to face Jeremy Hunt in race for Tory leadership
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt are the final two candidates in the Conservative leadership race this year. The end of phase one voting saw the ex London mayor with an astonishing 160 votes, well over double his rival. The second phase of voting will commence from June 22, which will culminate in the election of a new Prime Minister. Of the two final candidates, who is most likely to be Prime Minister?
Will Boris Johnson or Michael Gove Jeremy Hunt become Prime Minister?
The Tory leadership race has been dominated by Boris Johnson, who has jumped from strength to strength in each round of the MP vote.
The MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip came to a resounding first place at each stage, starting with 114 votes in the first secret ballot earlier last week.
In the second he jumped by a conservative 12 votes but remained far in the lead.
In the third and fourth rounds, which took place yesterday and earlier today, Mr Johnson only extended his lead by 17 and 14 votes respectively.
His closest rivals only saw a trickle of additional votes, with an increase of five votes for Jeremy Hunt, and 10 for Michael Gove.
Although his lofty position suggests Mr Johnson will take the leadership role, past Tory frontrunners in a leadership race have been denied by the wider Conservative membership.
Before this year, the most recent Tory leadership race was in 2005, which saw David Cameron against future Brexit Secretary David Davis.
Mr Davis was the runaway favourite as the leadership race proceeded to the fifth round, but his lead was scuppered at the last second.
In the final vote to the UK's 300,000 Conservative members, a wide berth developed between David Davis and David Cameron.
David Cameron took a massive 67.6 percent of the vote, with 134,446 members behind him.
Mr Davis, on the other hand, managed only 64,398, 32.4 percent of the party.
The same happened in the 2001 Conservative Leadership election, which saw Iain Duncan Smith Vs Kenneth Clarke.
The final round of this election saw Mr Clarke ahead by five votes, with 59 to Mr Smith's 54.
Once again, when the vote progressed to the public, Iain Duncan Smith took 60.7 percent of the vote to Kenneth Clarke's 39.3 percent.
This means Boris Johnson's final result is far from decided, as there is still time for an intervention from Conservative Party members.
However, Mr Johnson's massive lead and general popularity with party members suggests he is unlikely to lose his position.