Tom Tugendhat enters race to replace Boris Johnson amid calls for PM to speed up exit
Would-be successors to Boris Johnson were today preparing their leadership bids after the prime minister fired the starting gun in the race to become the next UK leader. After an extraordinary 48 hours in which dozens of ministers, aides and MPs quit or withdrew their support, Mr Johnson's resigned on Thursday as Conservative leader. In his unrepentant resignation speech in Downing Street he blamed the "herd" mentality of parliament for turning against him and said he had tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade colleagues that it would be "eccentric" to change governments at this time. He offered no contrition for the scandals of “partygate” or his handling of the sexual harassment claims surrounding Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip. He said he intended to remain as prime minister until a new leader of the Conservative party is found, a process which could take months. But calls are building for him to leave immediately, and for an acting leader to head the world...