Boris Johnson has declared that he will run for the Conservative Party leadership, as senior Tories urged Theresa May to set a date for her departure from Number 10.
Mr. Johnson, former foreign secretary, confirmed what MPs at Westminster have known for a long time when he said that he would make his second run for the Tory leadership.
Asked at a business event in Manchester if he would be a candidate, the former foreign secretary replied: “Of course I’m going to go for it.”
Mrs. May has said she will resign once the House of Commons backs her Brexit deal with the EU, but on Thursday she was urged to set a specific exit date.
The Tory backbench 1922 committee executive held talks lasting 90 minutes with Mrs May to discuss a timetable for her resignation; the prime minister has so far refused to set a date.
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Many Tory MPs believe the 1922 committee will change the party rules to allow another no confidence vote in Mrs May, if she has not signalled her departure by the middle of June.
Mr. Johnson previously ran for the Tory leadership in 2016, but his campaign self-destructed amid claims that he was not focused on the job in hand.
Michael Gove, who had been running the Johnson campaign, announced his own candidacy on the day the former foreign secretary was supposed to formally launch his own bid.
If Mrs May does resign before the Commons summer break, starting in July, that would allow a leadership contest to run through August and September with a “coronation” at the party’s autumn conference in Manchester. (FT)
