The next prime minister of the United Kingdom is set to be announced on September 5.

A timeline was set out this evening, as the Conservative Party changed the rules to make it more difficult to run for leadership of the party.

This week is set to be a big one for the Tories, with the field of candidates potentially narrowing down to two in just a few days.

And the contenders could be reduced from the current 11 to declare their intention to run even before the first ballot, as MPs will need to secure 20 nominations from other Tory MPs to be considered.

Boris Johnson will remain as caretaker prime minister for around the next two months, until the new leader is confirmed.

Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, said nominations to be leader of the Conservative Party will close tomorrow.

The first ballot will take place on Wednesday and candidates will be expected to have 20 supporters, including their proposer and seconder.

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The names of the proposer and seconder will be made public.

In order to progress to a second ballot, planned for Thursday, candidates must win at least 30 votes from Party colleagues.

If the number of candidates has not then been narrowed down to two, ballots are expected to begin again on Monday next week.

Sir Graham said the new leader would be announced on September 5 after MPs return from summer recess, but would not say when the final vote would take place.

He said it was a ‘perfectly reasonable’ timetable that would allow hustings to take place around the country over the summer.

Bob Blackman, joint-executive secretary of the 1922 Committee, told Sky News earlier: ‘We’ve got to slim down the list of candidates pretty quickly to two.

‘And the one thing that we’re committed to do is to achieve getting to two candidates by Thursday July 21.

‘That means that we’ll hold a succession of ballots over the next few days in order to get to that position.’

The 1922 Committee is comprised of all backbench Tory MPs.

Mr Blackman said: ‘The view is that candidates to get on the ballot paper should demonstrate a broad swathe of support amongst Conservative MPs.’

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