BORIS JOHNSON HAS been elected as the leader of the Conservative Party in Britain, following a vote by about 160,000 party members.
He was elected by 92,153 votes to 46,656, securing support from 66.4% of the party members who voted.
Some 87.4% of the eligible 159,320 members cast a vote in the leadership contest.
The Conservative Party’s 1922 committee made the announcement this morning at Westminster’s Queen Elizabeth II conference centre following three weeks of voting.
Johnson was the frontrunner from the outset to take the premiership after Theresa May announced she would resign from her role as party leader and British prime minister from 7 June.
She remained in a caretaker role until the new prime minister was chosen but will formally give up the position to Johnson tomorrow.
Johnson, the former lord mayor of London, saw off competition in the Tory leadership race from nine other candidates over six weeks.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt survived five rounds of voting by Tory MPs, going into a face-off with Johnson, but failing to win enough support from his colleagues to overtake the 55-year-old Londoner.
Johnson will travel to Buckingham Palace tomorrow where he will formally be asked to form a government by Queen Elizabeth.
At the same time, Theresa May will travel to the palace to hand in her resignation.
Johnson worked as a journalist for several years during the 1980s and 1990s at publications including The Times and The Daily Telegraph.
In 2001, he successfully ran as a Conservative candidate for Henley in Oxfordshire, and in 2008 was elected to the first of two terms as the mayor of London.
He returned to Westminster in 2016, following the general election, taking a seat in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip area of London.
He cemented himself at the fore of the pro-Brexit campaign, against the views of the then party leader David Cameron, and remains steadfast in his calls for Britain to leave the European Union.
Johnson continues to write regular columns for the pro-Brexit Daily Telegraph newspaper.
With support from people like Donald Trump, who last week said he “looks forward to working with him” and that he will “work out Brexit,” Johnson has promised the British people that he will leave the EU with, or without, a deal in 14 weeks’ time.
Today, the US president tweeted his congratulations.
Donald J. Trump / Twitter
Donald J. Trump / Twitter / Twitter
Although there is much work still to be done on Brexit, Johnson will have six weeks to settle into Downing Street, as parliament goes into recess for the summer break.
It is due to return on the 3 September when MPs will once again continue to debate the UK’s divorce from the EU.
Just minutes after today’s announcement, EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier tweeted about Johnson’s new position.
“We look forward to working constructively with Boris Johnson when he takes office, to facilitate the ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement and achieve an orderly Brexit,” he wrote. ”We are ready also to rework the agreed Declaration on a new partnership in line with EUCO guidelines.”
The UK is due to leave the EU on or before 31 October.
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