Boris Johnson to become UK's next prime minister

Photo: AFP Boris Johnson has defeated Jeremy Hunt in the race to be the Conservative party leader and will be Britain's next prime minister. He secured 92,153 votes, while Hunter received 46,656 votes.  The announcement was made at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre on Tuesday. He will take over as PM tomorrow (Wednesday). The Conservatives cast their votes to elect their new leader and PM after Theresa May stepped down from the post. May's Conservatives were already in power, having won a 2017 general election despite failing to gain a majority in parliament.

Many congratulations to @BorisJohnson on being elected leader of @Conservatives - we now need to work together to deliver a Brexit that works for the whole UK and to keep Jeremy Corbyn out of government. You will have my full support from the back benches.

— Theresa May (@theresa_may) July 23, 2019

Internal leadership elections are chosen by a combination of lawmakers -- who whittled down a long-list of candidates to just two -- and the party's members, who have been voting for weeks between Hunt and Johnson. The choice has been made by 160,000 Tory members -- just 0.2% of the total electorate -- who have picked the next leader for a country of nearly 67 million people. Johson, while giving his victory speech, remarked that there will be people who question the wisdom of the decision to elect him. The Conservative party has worked to "promote the good of the whole country" for the last 200 years, he said. Johnson promised to will deliver Brexit and defeat Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. People even staged a protest in Westminister against Johnson's appointment even before the results were announced. A small handful of anti-Johnson and anti-Brexit demonstrators waved placards and chanted outside parliament. Follow SAMAA English on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.