2019 Conservative Party leadership election

The **2019 Conservative Party leadership election** happened when the prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party, Theresa May, announced on 24 May 2019 that she would resign as leader on 7 June, and resign as Prime Minister when a replacement is elected.

Nominations closed on 10 June 2019 with ten candidates officially being nominated. The first ballot of MPs took place on 13 June. A second one took place on 18 June with a third on 19 June and a fourth and fifth ballot on 20 June. The entire contest is expected to be completed by mid-July. After the fifth ballot, Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson were the final two candidates. The general membership of the party elected Johnson as the leader by postal ballot on 22 July 2019.

### Nominated

The following MPs were officially nominated by the Conservative Party as candidates for the leadership position. Each candidate passed the first five ballots.

#### Fifth ballot

The following MP was eliminated on the fifth ballot on 20 June. They failed to obtain over 24% of the votes to advance further into the contest.

#### Fourth ballot

The following MP was eliminated on the fourth ballot on 20 June. They failed to obtain over 50 votes to advance further into the contest.

#### Third ballot

The following MP was eliminated on the third ballot on 19 June. They failed to obtain over 30 votes to advance further into the contest.

#### Second ballot

The following MP was eliminated on the second ballot on 18 June. They failed to obtain over 30 votes to advance further into the contest.

#### First ballot

The following MPs were eliminated on the first ballot on 13 June. They failed to obtain 17 votes to advance further into the contest.

#### During the ballot

The following individuals were officially nominated as a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party but then eventually withdrew after the first ballot of the race, due to insufficient support or other reasons:

#### Before the ballot

The following individuals announced that they would seek the leadership of the Conservative Party but then eventually did not stand, or withdrew before the first ballot of the race, due to insufficient support or other reasons:

## Timeline

|colspan="2"|Candidate status||
| --- | --- | --- |
|style="background:#0047ab;"||Candidate on membership ballot|
|style="background:#007fcc;"||Candidate eliminated during MP ballots|
|style="background:#B0C4DE;"||Candidate withdrew|
|style="background:red;"||Theresa May announces resignation|
|style="background:orange;"||Theresa May resigns as Conservative leader|
|style="background:yellow;"||Nominations close|
|style="background:#007f33;"||MP ballot|
|style="background:darkblue;"||Postal ballots distributed to party members|
|style="background:purple;"||Final leadership hustings|
|style="background:black;"||Results announced|

## Results

After each ballot of Conservative MPs, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. A new rule was introduced in 2019 due to the number of candidates: In the first ballot, held on 13 June 2019, candidates also needed to pass a threshold of 17 votes to avoid elimination. In the second ballot, held on 18 June, candidates needed to pass a threshold of 33 votes to avoid elimination.

|rowspan=2|Candidate|colspan="2"|First ballot: 13 June 2019|colspan="2"|Second ballot: 18 June 2019|colspan="2"|Third ballot: 19 June 2019|colspan="2"|Fourth ballot: 20 June 2019|colspan="2"|Fifth ballot: 20 June 2019|colspan="2"|Members' vote|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|**Boris Johnson**|**114**|**36.4**|**126**|**40.3**|**143**|**45.7**|**157**|**50.2**|**160**|**51.1**|**92,153**|**66.1**|
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Jeremy Hunt|43|13.7|46|14.7|54|17.3|59|18.8|77|24.6|46,656|33.5|
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Michael Gove|37|11.8|41|13.1|51|16.3|61|19.5|75|24.0|colspan="2"||
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Sajid Javid|23|7.3|33|10.5|38|12.1|34|10.9|colspan="4"||||
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Rory Stewart|19|6.1|37|11.8|27|8.6|colspan="6"||||||
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Dominic Raab|27|8.6|30|9.6|colspan="8"||||||||
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Matt Hancock|20|6.4|colspan="10"||||||||||
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Andrea Leadsom|11|3.5|colspan="10"||||||||||
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Mark Harper|10|3.2|colspan="10"||||||||||
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Esther McVey|9|2.9|colspan="10"||||||||||
|0|0.0|0|0.0|0|0.0|2|0.6|1|0.3|509|0.4|||
|313|100.0|313|100.0|313|100.0|313|100.0|313|100.0|139,318|87.4|||

## Infobox (election)

- **election name**: 2019 Conservative Party leadership election
- **type**: presidential
- **ongoing**: no
- **previous election**: 2016 Conservative Party leadership election
- **previous year**: 2016
- **next election**: July–September 2022 Conservative Party (UK) leadership election
- **next year**: July–September 2022
- **votes for election**: #Results, Full results for all candidates below
- **turnout**: 87.4%
- **opinion polls**: Opinion polling for the 2019 Conservative Party (UK) leadership election
- **5blank**: Fifth MPs' ballot
- **6blank**: Members' vote
- **image1**: Boris Johnson election infobox.jpg
- **image1 size**: 160x160px
- **candidate1**: **Boris Johnson**
- **5data1**: **160 (51.1%)**
- **6data1**: **92,153 (66.1%)**
- **image2**: Official portrait of Mr Jeremy Hunt crop 2.jpg
- **image2 size**: 160x160px
- **candidate2**: Jeremy Hunt
- **5data2**: 77 (24.6%)
- **6data2**: 46,656 (33.5%)
- **title**: Leader
- **before election**: Theresa May
- **after election**: Boris Johnson