London: Britain’s prime ministerial race entered its final phase as voting closed 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.
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.
In one of final major prime ministerial acts, May chaired the government’s emergency Cobra meeting on Monday after a British-flagged tanker was seized by Iran in the Gulf last week.
It will be one of the first big international issue to address for any new PM as well.
With just hours to go before the vote closed, Johnson used his weekly newspaper column in the Daily Telegraph to compare the Brexit negotiations and meeting the October 31 deadline for Britain to leave the European Union (EU) with the same “can-do spirit” behind putting a man on the moon 50 years ago.
He called for optimism in the approach to resolving the controversial Irish backstop issue, the controversial insurance policy insisted upon by the EU but seen as a means of keeping the UK tied to European rules even after Brexit.
He has come under severe criticism from leading politicians, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair from the Opposition Labour Party, who warned against the prospect of a chaotic no-deal Brexit – something Johnson has refused to rule out on several occasions.
Meanwhile, senior UK Cabinet members – Chancellor Philip Hammond and justice secretary David Gauke – have declared their intention to resign if Johnson is the one elected as party leader and Prime Minister, in line with their firm opposition to a no-deal Brexit. A number of other Cabinet members are set to follow suit in the event that Johnson wins race over similar Brexit-related concerns. (PTI)
