Any candidates who run for the leadership will go through rounds of voting by Conservative lawmakers until only two remain — at which point Conservative Party members nationwide will vote. The winner will be the new party leader — and prime minister.
Here’s a look at the possible contenders.
Rishi Sunak
His stock sank earlier this year after revelations that he broke Covid regulations to attend the prime minister’s birthday party on June 19, 2020, for which he later apologized “unreservedly.”
His financial and legal affairs came under scrutiny this spring following reports his wife had non-domicile status in the UK — meaning she was not liable to pay tax on overseas income — and that he held a US green card while serving as minister.
Sajid Javid
The former health secretary, whose resignation set off a wave of departures from Johnson’s government, officially announced his candidacy on Sunday.
“Whether it’s the cost of living or it’s low levels of growth, for me, that’s our most immediate challenge… You need someone with an economic plan from day one,” he said, adding that his economic plan would have two prongs: short-term measures to help people meet cost-of-living challenges and a longer-term plan for tax reform.
Posting on Twitter on Sunday, Javid said: “The next Prime Minister needs integrity, experience, and a tax-cutting plan for economic growth. That’s why I’m standing.”
Those who support Javid’s candidacy hope that he will be credited for triggering Johnson’s ultimate ouster, having been the first cabinet minister to resign — though Sunak followed him minutes later.
The MP has twice run for party leadership in the past — in 2016, after the Brexit referendum, and in 2019, when Johnson was ultimately elected. He served as chancellor from 2019 to 2020.
His family immigrated from Pakistan to the UK in the 1960s, and his father worked as a bus driver.
Liz Truss
She has a formidable and dedicated team around her — some of whom previously worked in Number 10 — which has been producing slick videos and photos of her looking thoroughly statesmanlike. She has apparently attempted to channel former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, wearing a headscarf while driving a tank, and her role in fronting the response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also heightened her public profile.
In her comment piece in The Telegraph, she highlighted her foreign policy expertise, writing: “As Foreign Secretary, I have helped to lead the international response to Putin’s war in Ukraine and delivered a tough sanctions package that has led the world, by imposing real pain on Putin and the Kremlin.”
Truss is popular among Conservative members, who would pick the eventual winner of a contest. But Johnson’s downfall could simultaneously tarnish anyone in his cabinet, meaning Conservative voters could turn to a backbencher to take the mantle.
Penny Mordaunt
Penny Mordaunt first entered parliament in 2010 and later joined the cabinet under Theresa May, serving as international development and defense secretary.
Announcing her interest in the top job, she said the party “leadership needs to become a little less about the leader and a lot more about the ship.”
Mordaunt, who in 2019 became the first woman to serve as defense minister, invoked Thatcher in her statement, saying the former Conservative leader “was remarkable for not just what she did but the speed she did it.”
“She had a vision and a plan. So do I,” she added.
Tom Tugendhat
He outlined his vision for tackling the cost of living crisis, reducing taxes and investing in neglected regions of the UK.
Despite not having any cabinet or shadow cabinet experience, Tugendhat has impressed colleagues with his oratory skills and seriousness, most notably when he spoke about the fall of Afghanistan. He entered parliament in 2015 after serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Some key centrist Conservatives have already been throwing their support behind the relative wildcard, but some worry that his experience is too focused on foreign affairs.
Nadhim Zahawi
Until his promotion, Zahawi, who joined the cabinet less than a year ago, was considered an unlikely choice as the next leader of the Conservative Party. But his rise under Johnson has been rapid, making his mark with early success as vaccines minister amid the coronavirus pandemic and then as education secretary.
Despite voting to leave the European Union in 2016, Zahawi is widely admired among the moderates in the party. Crucially, as one Conservative source put it, “he’s not been in government long enough to have any obvious defects and, despite supporting Boris even after the confidence vote, is not too tainted by association.”
Zahawi was born in Iraq to Kurdish parents and came to the UK as a child, when his family fled Saddam Hussein’s regime. He is believed to be one of the richest politicians in the House of Commons, and helped found the polling company YouGov.
“If a young boy who came here aged 11 without a word of English, can serve at the highest levels of Her Majesty’s Government and run to be the next Prime Minister, anything is possible,” Zahawi is set to say in a speech Monday, an excerpt of which was published by The Spectator.
Jeremy Hunt
In a statement on Twitter ahead of the confidence vote in June, Hunt said: “Anyone who believes our country is stronger, fairer & more prosperous when led by Conservatives should reflect that the consequence of not changing will be to hand the country to others who do not share those values. Today’s decision is change or lose. I will be voting for change.”
Tellingly, Hunt’s statement focused mainly on the Conservatives’ chances of electoral success under Johnson, rather than his policies or the partygate scandal — a decision that could be read as a pitch to the Conservative MPs and members who would decide a leadership election. However, he comes with baggage, and sources from the opposition Labour Party have told CNN they are already writing attack lines.
“It can’t be Jeremy. Labour can say he was running healthcare for six years and failed to prepare for a pandemic. They can say when he was culture secretary he chummed up to the Murdochs during the phone hacking scandal. He will get crushed,” a senior Conservative source told CNN.
Grant Shapps
The transport secretary launched his bid for prime minister this weekend, describing himself as a “problem solver, with a proven record of delivery” in a post on Twitter.
“We have had two-and-a-half years of tactical government by an often distracted centre. This must end. We must be a strategic government, sober in its analysis, and not chasing the next headline,” the paper quoted Shapps as saying.
The MP for Welwyn Hatfield was elected in 2005 and has held several ministerial posts. He is also a former co-chair of the Conservative party.
Kemi Badenoch
“I’m putting myself forward in this leadership election because I want to tell the truth. It’s the truth that will set us free,” she wrote Saturday. Badenoch, who voted in favor of Brexit in 2016, added she would run on a “smart and nimble centre-right vision.”
Suella Braverman
Last week, the attorney general called for Johnson to quit and said that she would join a leadership race to replace him, telling ITV “it would be the greatest honor.”
Braverman was elected as MP for Fareham in 2015.
Rehman Chishti
Among the biggest outsiders in the race, the newly appointed Foreign Office minister threw his hat into the ring on Sunday.
CNN’s Jorge Engels, Amy Cassidy, Cecelia Armstrong, Ivana Kottasová and Sugam Pokharel in London contributed to this report.