Truss vs Sunak: How is a New Tory Party Leader & UK Prime Minister Chosen?

The UK Conservative Party leadership race and the battle for No 10 will end on Friday, September 2, with the winner announced on September 5. Either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss will become the UK's next PM.

After scandal-mired Boris Johnson resigned as the leader of the Conservative Party and UK prime minister on July 7, an internal voting process was prompted within the Tory party. When a prime minister resigns, as happened with Johnson, there isn't automatically a general election.

The UK generally holds elections where all 650 MPs are elected to the House of Commons every five years, with people voting for the representative in their local area - a constituency. The party that wins the most constituencies is declared the winner, with the triumphant party then picking a candidate for the post of PM.

Party leaders are chosen internally in advance of a general election. Unless an earlier election is called, the next one is due in January 2025. As the Tories have a majority in the UK Parliament, the winner of the party leadership vote will automatically enter No 10 Downing Street.

Here is an explainer as to how the new party leader and PM is chosen.

Two-Step Elimination

A member of Parliament from the Conservative Party needs to be nominated by at least 20 fellow MPs to enter the race to become PM. After this, a two-step selection process takes place.

During the first stage, the 358 Tory MPs vote for candidates in secret ballots to eliminate those with the fewest votes. In the second stage, grassroots party members vote for the last two candidates.

There were eight candidates at the beginning of the election process: former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, Junior Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch, Attorney General Suella Braverman, Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat, and Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.

Currently, the Tory leadership race is in its final stage, with two remaining candidates: former Chancellor Rishi Sunak and frontrunner UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

Hustings & Final Vote

In the final stage of the Conservative Party leadership contest, a vote among the party's membership decides the winner, who will be announced on 5 September. Members must have joined the party on or before June 3 to be eligible to vote either by post or online. About 160,000 people were eligible to vote during the last Tory leadership election in 2019.

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have been spending the summer campaigning across the UK and taking part in hustings events to woo party members with their plans on taxes and spending. The events, open to Conservative members, have been streamed on the party's website.

The ballot of party members closes at 17:00 BST on September 2.

The winner’s name will be revealed on September 5 by Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbench MPs.

Should a candidate drop out of the race earlier, the new PM could be announced before the set date. This was the case in 2016, when then Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom withdrew from the race, leaving Theresa May as the only remaining candidate. The winner of the Tory leadership contest becomes PM on September 6.

After the new Tory leader is announced, they are expected to deliver a short televised acceptance speech before addressing the Tories separately in Parliament.

The new prime minister is then invited to meet Queen Elizabeth II after the outgoing Boris Johnson places the resignation letter before the monarch.

A statement is then released by Buckingham Palace saying that the Queen is “pleased to accept” the PM’s resignation. The new Tory leader will seek permission from the Queen to form a new government.