Boris Johnson has been named as the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after comfortably winning the Conservative leadership contest against Jeremy Hunt.
Johnson, who has previously held the office of Foreign Secretary, as well as Mayor of London, won the ballot of Conservative Party members following a vote that closed at 17:00 on Monday 22 July.
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Johnson received 92,153 which was twice as many as Jeremy Hunt who received 46,656.
The MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip will now take office on Wednesday following the departure of Theresa May.
Despite his popularity with the party membership, Johnson is not an overwhelmingly popular choice among his Tory party colleagues.
Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said on Sunday that he would resign his position if Johnson were to become PM.
He said that Johnson's refusal to remove the option of leaving the European Union without a deal was "not something I could ever sign up to".
The entire Tory leadership contest - and just about everything else, recently - has been dominated by discussion of Brexit.
Whilst neither candidate ruled out the possibility of leaving with no deal, Johnson was adamant in interviews that the UK must leave the EU by the deadline of 31 October 2019, 'do or die, come what may'.
Justice Secretary David Gauke has also reiterated his decision to leave the cabinet for the same reason. Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan became the third minister to resign on Monday.
Johnson replaces Theresa May, who left office today after tendering her resignation to the Queen. May announced that she'd leave office on 24 May and officially ceased to lead the Conservative Party on 7 June.
May's resignation came after she repeatedly failed to get her Brexit Withdrawal Agreement through Parliament.
Despite narrowing her margin of loss on each occasion, May's deal was rejected three times by Members of the House of Commons.
It will now be Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision as to the direction the UK takes on Brexit.
Featured Image Credit: PA