Boris Johnson is expected to be elected leader of Britain’s governing Conservative Party and the country’s next prime minister, tasked with following through on his “do or die” pledge to deliver Brexit in just over three months time.
Arriving at his London office on Tuesday morning, Johnson was confronted by a silent protester wielding a sign reading ‘Freedom, Independence, Identity, Democracy, Sovereignty’. He declined to answer questions from the media.
Johnson and his rival, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, have spent the last month criss-crossing the country seeking to win over the less than 200,000 Conservative Party members who will choose Britain’s new leader.
Voting closed at 1600 GMT on Monday (July 23) and the result is due to be announced on Tuesday morning. The winner will formally take over as prime minister on Wednesday (July 24) afternoon, succeeding Theresa May, who stepped down over her failure to get parliament to ratify her Brexit deal.
Johnson, a former London mayor who resigned as foreign minister a year ago over May’s Brexit plans, is the clear favourite to replace her, with several polls putting him on around 70 percent.