Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson set to be UK’s next Prime Minister

The Conservative Party of the UK has selected the Boris Johnson as the next leader of the Conservative Party and thus, the next Prime Minister of the UK. While Boris Johnson received the support of 92,513 members, his competitor, and current Foreign Secretary of the UK, Jeremy Hunt received the support of 46,656 members.

Boris Johnson, who was the face of 2016 Brexit referendum, will now succeed former Conservative Party leader Theresa May as the Prime Minister of the UK. While the Conservative Party continues to hold a very precarious position in the UK House of Commons, she refused to lead the UK in the next stage of Brexit negotiations and had resigned in the first week of June.

Who is Boris Johnson?

• Boris Johnson had been a member of the UK’s Conservative Party.
• He was earlier the Mayor of London (2008-2016) and had also served as the Foreign Secretary (equivalent to India’s foreign Minister) between 2016-2018.
• In 2016, He became a prominent figure in the Brexit referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union and was one of the most famous proponents of the Vote Leave campaign.
• After Theresa May won the leadership of the Conservative Party in an election in which Johnson did not take part, she appointed him as the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
• He served in this position for two years, before resigning in protest at May’s approach to Brexit, criticizing the Chequers Agreement.
• With this victory, He is now the Prime Minister-designate of the UK.

What happens now?

Johnson has promised to negotiate a new Brexit exit deal with the EU and finalize it before October 31. However, if the EU refuses (as it insists it will), he has promised to leave anyway the EU anyway. This step is detrimental for the global economy as many investors and economists claim it would send shock waves through world markets and tip the world’s fifth-largest economy into recession or even chaos.