Tories hold first round of voting for next UK PM

Britain's ruling Conservative party Wednesday began winnowing down the eight candidates vying to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who hinted the race could last days rather than weeks.

"I will be leaving soon with my head held high," Johnson said at his penultimate session of Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, following a spectacular collapse in cabinet support last week.

Praising his government's economic record, he added: "One of the consolations of leaving office at this particular time is that vacancies are at an all-time high."

Under the election schedule, Johnson's successor as Conservative leader is meant to be announced on September 5, as the party seeks to rebuild its popular support after he was felled by non-stop scandal.

But Johnson suggested the new leader could be elected "by acclamation" before next week, if the last two candidates agree a deal between them.

Leading contenders have already ruled that out, and Johnson's press secretary told reporters that he was merely noting "uncertainty" about the race.

She added that the government was filing a Commons vote of confidence in itself, with a debate set for Monday, after rejecting an opposition Labour motion that was designed to evict Johnson sooner.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said Johnson was "totally deluded to the bitter end" but could take comfort in no longer having to follow the rules set for everyone else -- a biting reference to "Partygate" and other scandals.

In a sign of things to come, Starmer also set his sights on the Tory leadership contenders, including on the complicated tax affairs of wealthy frontrunner Rishi Sunak.

Johnson was forced last week to announce his resignation after a wave of ministerial resignations including by then finance minister Sunak.

It was a stunning fall from grace for a politician who secured a landslide election win in December 2019 and took the UK out of the European Union a month later, before the Covid pandemic struck.

Conservative MPs were voting on the eight candidates who survived an initial cull Tuesday, with a result expected around 1600 GMT.

Those failing to get 30 votes will be eliminated. A series of votes will be held into next week until there are just two left in the race.

Grassroots party members will then vote to select the leader.

While Johnson himself says he will stay above the fray, his remaining loyalists have not held back in rubbishing Sunak, and have been coalescing behind the right-wing foreign secretary, Liz Truss.

Johnson praised the "eight wonderful candidates", arguing any of them "would wipe the floor with" Starmer's Labour. "In a few weeks, they will unite around the winner and do just that," he said.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who withdrew from the race to support Sunak, pushed back at claims from Johnson allies that his candidate had been a "socialist chancellor" for overseeing a massive support package during the pandemic.

Sunak has since been stressing the need to balance the books, in contrast to a free-for-all series of tax cuts promised by leadership rivals that have drawn concern from the Bank of England and independent economists.

Sunak came top in Tuesday's list of nominations from Tory MPs, ahead of former defence minister Penny Mordaunt, Truss and foreign affairs committee chairman Tom Tugendhat.

Former junior minister Kemi Badenoch, new chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, ex-health secretary Jeremy Hunt and Attorney General Suella Braverman rounded out the eight.