London CNN —
The resignation of Liz Truss on Thursday after a disastrous six-week tenure as prime minister has got the race rolling for the next Conservative Party leader.
According to the Conservative Party official in charge of the process, a new leader is to be announced on Friday October 28, who will become Prime Minister as leader of the largest party in Britain’s House of Commons.
The opposition Labor Party, which according to opinion polls pointed to a landslide victory, immediately called for early general elections.
“After 12 years of Tory failure, the British people deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos,” Tory leader Keir Starmer said after Truss resigned. “We need new elections now”
But a new election is not a certainty, even as Britain prepares for its fifth leader in just over six years.
Instead, the Conservative Party is on the verge of electing its third leader since the last general election in 2019.
While the last Conservative leadership election took almost two months – longer than Truss will spend as prime minister – the next one will be quick.
Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee representing grassroots Conservative MPs, announced the new chairman would be elected by next Friday.
The candidates to replace Truss need at least 100 nominations from Conservative MPs, Brady said. The 100 endorsement requirement to proceed in the race effectively narrows the field of potential candidates to a maximum of three.
If only one candidate emerges, there could be a new party leader and prime minister by Monday, Brady said.
However, if more than one candidate crosses that threshold, they will be admitted to party membership in a quick online vote, with the new prime minister to be announced next Friday.
The competition comes to an end in time for a crucial economic statement from the UK Treasury Secretary, which is set for October 31st.
“The Tories cannot respond to their latest mess by just clicking their fingers again and shuffling the people at the top without the consent of the British people,” Starmer said in a statement on Thursday.
Still, Britons may have to wait another two years before giving their consent in the next general election.
As long as the government can enjoy the confidence of the House of Commons, it can decide when elections are called. For all their turbulence, the Conservatives have a healthy majority of 71 in Parliament and it is unlikely that their MPs would voluntarily choose an election that could see them lose their jobs.
Currently, the Conservatives are trailing Labor by virtually historic levels in opinion polls, pointing to the party’s near-extinction.
Although many Conservative lawmakers have expressed desperation at the state of their party, it remains to be seen whether enough of them would join Labor in a possible general election vote – as many of these Tory MPs would effectively be voting themselves out of a Labor.
The next national poll need not take place before January 2025 and is widely expected in mid-2024, which is the time of year when general elections normally take place in the UK.
A government needs parliament to give the green light to plans for a new vote, and once that happens, a six-week campaign period begins.
But with the whirlwind of changes at the heart of government since the last vote, the question of the general election is sure to dominate British politics and haunt the new prime minister.