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Boris Johnson replaces Theresa May as UK prime minister

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Downing Street gets a new occupant after one of the most decisive leadership landslides in Conservative Party history.

Boris Johnson is set to become Britain’s next prime minister after routing Jeremy Hunt in the Conservative Party leadership contest on July 23, 2019. The former London mayor and foreign secretary now inherits a country split down the middle over Brexit, a shrinking parliamentary majority, and a self-imposed deadline that leaves him almost no room to maneuver. Theresa May, who announced her resignation on May 24 after failing three times to pass her withdrawal agreement through Parliament, hands over a job that has chewed up two prime ministers in three years.

• Johnson won the Conservative membership vote 92,153 to 46,656 — a 66.4% to 33.6% landslide over Jeremy Hunt, announced at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in central London.
• In his victory speech, Johnson declared his mission is to “deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn,” adding: “The campaign is over and the work begins.”
• Theresa May takes her final Prime Minister’s Questions on July 24 before traveling to Buckingham Palace to resign to the Queen, who will then formally invite Johnson to form a government.

A Lopsided Result

The scale of Johnson’s win left little doubt about where the roughly 160,000-strong Conservative membership stood. Nearly two-thirds backed him over Hunt, the sitting foreign secretary who had campaigned as the steadier, more cautious alternative. The result capped a leadership race that began the moment May confirmed she was stepping aside, and it confirmed what Westminster had assumed for weeks: the party wanted Johnson, and it wanted him decisively.

“The campaign is over and the work begins.” — Boris Johnson

The Brexit Deadline

Johnson’s central promise is also his biggest liability: leaving the European Union by October 31, “no ifs, no buts.” That date was already tight when May was still in office, and Johnson has signaled he’s willing to walk away without a deal if Brussels won’t renegotiate the terms — a stance that has already triggered resignations from ministers unwilling to serve in a government preparing for a no-deal exit. The pledge sets up an immediate collision with a Parliament that has never had a majority for leaving without an agreement.

The Handover at the Palace

The mechanics of the transition are old-fashioned in a way the politics are not. May faces MPs one last time at Prime Minister’s Questions on July 24, then drives to Buckingham Palace to formally tender her resignation to Queen Elizabeth II. Johnson follows her there, is asked by the Queen to form a government, and returns to Downing Street as prime minister — a ceremony that hasn’t changed in generations even as the stakes around it have escalated sharply.

Uniting a Divided Party

Johnson’s other stated goal — defeating Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party — depends on holding together a Conservative Party that is anything but united. The same Brexit fault lines that sank May’s deal three times are still there waiting for him, now with a working majority in the Commons of just a handful of seats. Cabinet reshuffles and resignations were already underway before he’d even reached Downing Street, a preview of how thin his margin for error will be.

Johnson takes office with a deadline chosen by nobody but himself, a majority that could vanish on any given vote, and a Brexit question that has already ended one premiership. Whether October 31 holds as the actual departure date is the first thing to watch — and it will say more about his government than anything said at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre.