Conservative MPs will cast their first votes in the party’s leadership contest later today.
Whoever wins the contest will replace Boris Johnson as party leader and become prime minister.
Voting is set to begin at 13:30 with a result expected at 17:00 BST.
The candidacy nominations closed at 18:00 BST last night and the eight candidates took part in a hustings event in parliament to try and secure support from their colleagues.
The process, made more difficult on this occasion in order to reduce the amount number of ‘rogue’ nominees, means they must secure 30 votes in the first round to stay in the race. This is up from 18, the amount needed traditionally.
Those in line are: Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat and Nadhim Zahawi.
Before today’s voting starts, prime minister Boris Johnson will attend his first question time in parliament since his resignation.
Currently, Rishi Sunak has the highest amount of support among Conservative
MPs, followed by trade minister Penny Mordaunt. However, it still seems that there is no clear-cut winner at this stage.
Further rounds of votes will take place over the next few days in order to take those in the race from 8 to 2.
About 160,000 members of the Conservative party will then choose between these final two contestants. The winner is due to be announced on 5 September.
Former health secretary Sajid Javid and junior minister Rehman Chishti failed to secure enough nominations before the deadline so withdrew from the contest on Monday.
