Boris Johnson will face Jeremy Hunt in a final vote for U.K. prime minister

(Image credit: BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images)

published 20 June 2019

Britain's race for prime minister is officially set.

Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson will face off in a runoff vote to decide the next British prime minister, a Tory leadership vote decided Thursday. Johnson, the heavy favorite to win the race, got the support of 160 MPs, while Hunt earned 77 votes, per The Associated Press. The winner of the runoff will be announced July 22.

Hunt, the foreign minister, beat his nearest competitor, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, by just two votes on Thursday. Home Secretary Sajid Javid was also edged out of the race in a vote earlier that day. Meanwhile, Johnson secured more than half of his party's support, even after his supporters reportedly "lent votes to the foreign secretary to knock out his bitter rival Gove," The Guardian writes.

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Johnson is one of Britain's most recognizable political figures, previously serving as foreign secretary to outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May and as mayor of London. He's so far campaigned on pulling Britain out of the EU by the Oct. 31 deadline with or without a trade deal. May has so far been unable to deliver Brexit, requesting extensions on withdrawal deadlines and even offering up her own resignation if Parliament would agree to the deal she drew up. But even that didn't work, so May has committed to stepping down as prime minister as soon as her party chooses a new leader.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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