Britain’s governing Conservative Party is set to reveal later today (July 23) the identity of the country’s next prime minister, with Brexit champion Boris Johnson the strong favorite to get the job.

Party officials will announce whether Johnson or rival Jeremy Hunt has won a ballot of about 160,000 Conservative members.

Boris Johnson is expected to be elected leader of Britain’s governing Conservative Party and the country’s next prime minister on Tuesday, tasked with following through on his “do or die” pledge to deliver Brexit in just over three months time.

Johnson and his rival, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, have spent the last month crisscrossing 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 and the result is due to be announced on Tuesday morning.
The winner will formally take over as prime minister on Wednesday 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 per cent.

He will inherit a political crisis over Britain’s exit from the European Union, currently due to take place on October 31.

Johnson must persuade the EU to revive talks on a withdrawal deal that it has been adamant cannot be reopened, or else lead Britain into the economic uncertainty of an unmanaged departure.

The only deal on the table has been rejected three times by parliament and many lawmakers - including pro-EU rebels in the Conservative Party - are also vowing to block Johnson trying to take Britain out of the EU without a deal.

He has said he would ramp up preparations for a no-deal to try to force the EU’s negotiators to make changes to the accord.