This is when the new UK prime minister will be announced
160,000 Conservative party members will choose between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt for prime minister. (Dan Kitwood/Getty and Leon Neal/Getty)
The next leader of the Conservative party, and therefore the UK’s new prime minister, is expected to be announced next Tuesday (July 23) at 11 am.
This week will see the final deadline for Conservative party members to vote on who will be the next leader.
The party’s 160,000 members will choose between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, and according to Dispatches they make up 0.2 percent of the population.
Of these, almost half are over the age of 65, 71 percent are male and 97 percent are white.
Understand new PM announced at 11am next Tuesday, to be precise
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) July 16, 2019
The day after the announcement, July 24, Theresa May will address the public as prime minister for the last time at a final Prime Minister’s Questions before going on to Buckingham Palace to officially resign.
Both Johnson and Hunt have mixed records when it comes to LGBT+ rights.
As an MP, Hunt voted in favour of a 2007 piece of legislation introduced by Labour which eventually led to banned discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, and also voted for marriage equality in 2013.
Despite negative comments on the issue earlier in his career, in 2010 Johnson became the highest-ranking Conservative politician to publicly express his support of marriage equality in an interview with PinkNews.
Theresa May is expected to officially resign as the UK’s prime minister at Buckingham Palace on July 24. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
As Health Secretary, Hunt shirked the responsibility of lifting the ban on gay men donating blood in Northern Ireland, saying it was a matter for its devolved parliament.
In 2016 it was reported that Hunt may have avoided backing a full roll-out of PReP, fearing a negative reaction from the press.
In 2018, Johnson approved a law in the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda that imposed a fresh ban on same-sex marriage, despite calls for him to block it on human rights grounds.
In a survey of Conservative party members by Channel 4’s Dispatches earlier this month, 56 percent said Islam is a threat to the British way of life and 42 percent believed that having people from a wide variety of racial and cultural backgrounds in the UK has damaged society.
49 percent of party members said schools should not be required to teach lessons inclusive of LGBT+ relationships, and 54 percent of Conservatives would back Donald Trump for British prime minister.
