Runners and riders in the leadership race: 10 potential candidates

Theresa May’s resignation speech has fired the starting gun on the official  Tory leadership race, by setting a departure date of June 7.

Here are the top 10 runners and riders vying to take on the mantle of Conservative leader by winning over Tory MPs and grassroots members.

– Boris Johnson

Easily recognisable thanks to his popularity on comedy TV shows, he nearly beat Theresa May to the top job in 2016, until his colleague Michael Gove decided to scupper his chances.

Since then, Mr Johnson has burnished his Leave credentials by walking out of Cabinet alongside David Davis in July last year, and has also cleared the decks on a notoriously complicated personal life.

He has already confirmed he will stand, telling a business event “of course I’m going to go for it”.

The 44-year-old MP for Esher and Walton also posed for a classic kitchen photo with his wife in a recent profile in The Sunday Times, showing off the family life of this son of a Czech-born Jewish father.

Mr Raab was a prominent Brexiteer in the referendum campaign and Mrs May appointed him as her second Brexit secretary in July, but he quit the role in November, saying he could not support her eventual deal.

In his resignation letter on November 15, he wrote: “Ultimately, you deserve a Brexit secretary who can make the case for the deal you are pursuing with conviction. I am only sorry, in good conscience, that I cannot.”

– Andrea Leadsom

Her refusal to bring the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to the Commons could be seen as the final nail in the coffin for Mrs May’s premiership and was widely interpreted as positioning for a leadership bid (Bet365 odds 14/1)

The 56-year-old has previously described the UK’s continued membership of the EU as “disgusting” and claimed that a Eurosceptic prime minister would have delivered Brexit already.

She was elected MP for South Northamptonshire in 2010 and is married with three children.

– Michael Gove

He withdrew his support on the morning that Mr Johnson was due to declare, and threw his own hat in the ring instead, but trailed behind ultimate winner Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom after the first round of voting.

Since then, he has made some memorable Commons appearances, notably in defence of Mrs May’s deal, and has a reputation for mastering complicated briefs (William Hill odds 9/1).

Mr Gove, 51, was born in Edinburgh, studied English at Oxford and was a journalist before becoming an MP. He is married to Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine.

– Jeremy Hunt

The MP for South West Surrey did not run in the previous contest, instead backing Mrs May, and he was one of the last Cabinet members she met in Downing Street.

Mr Hunt is married to Lucia Guo, who was born in Xian in central China, and they have three children. During a recent trip to China he dropped a clanger by saying his wife was Japanese.

– Penny Mordaunt

She has been named by Jacob Rees-Mogg as one of his favoured candidates and has a higher public profile than most due to her 2014 appearance on reality TV show Splash!

Ms Mordaunt, 45, supported Andrea Leadsom in the 2016 Conservative leadership contest, but has been publicly supportive of Mrs May in recent months.

She has been an MP for Portsmouth North since 2010 and is a Royal Navy reservist.

– Sajid Javid

Mr Javid, 49, who backed Remain in the referendum but has since positioned himself as a firm Leaver, became the first home secretary from an ethnic minority background when he was appointed in April 2018.

He is expected to be a popular candidate, with policies including his hard stance on the return of Shamima Begum, the former Bethnal Green schoolgirl who joined Islamic State, boosting his position among some colleagues.

The son of a Pakistani bus driver from Rochdale, he was a managing director at Deutsche Bank before becoming an MP in 2010. He is married with four children.

– Rory Stewart

He is known for pledging to resign from his prisons minister post if he couldn’t get a grip on rising levels of drugs and violence in UK jails.

Mr Stewart, 46, previously served as environment minister in David Cameron’s government, and has served in the Black Watch and in the Foreign Office.

He began his leadership bid in an interview with The Spectator last month, saying: “If you want someone who really enjoys doing stuff and loves government and is really proud of the country and feel that’s their thing, I’m really enthusiastic.”

– Matt Hancock

His previous role as digital, culture, media and sport secretary saw him launch his own app, to some mockery, and he has pushed his digital transformation agenda hard.

Known for being close to George Osborne and David Cameron, he has said the new leader should put the Tories “four square in the centre ground”.

He worked as an economist at the Bank of England before he became the MP for West Sussex and is married with a daughter and two sons.

 – James Cleverly     

He strongly hinted that he would make a leadership bid at an unofficial hustings held by the Telegraph earlier this week.

Mr Cleverly advocated Brexit during the referendum and has also supported scrapping the minimum wage and cuts to disability benefits.

The MP for Braintree is married with two sons. He has served in the Army and the Territorial Army and worked in publishing before he was elected in 2015.