Next Tory leader odds: Ben Wallace early favourite as Boris Johnson steps down

Boris Johnson is set to resign as leader of the Conservative Party before stepping down as prime minister in the autumn.

At the start of the week Johnson had been 6-4 to leave his position before the end of the year but the resignations of chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid on Tuesday evening saw those odds slashed to 1-7.

The prime minister's handling of the Chris Pincher scandal prompted an unprecedented number of government resignations and by Wednesday evening he was 1-33 not to see out 2022.

With the focus now turning to a leadership contest, defence minister Ben Wallace has been the subject of an early gamble and his odds have been cut from 15-2 to 5-2.

Sunak is rated a 5-1 chance to be the next Tory leader with minister for trade Penny Mordaunt quoted at 7-1 and Javid and foreign secretary Liz Truss 10-1.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who had called for "a fresh start" and pushed for a snap election, is out to 28-1 to be the next prime minister.

The Conservatives are 5-6 to win the most seats at the next general election with Labour 11-10 and the Liberal Democrats 66-1 outsiders of the three main parties.

Pincher was suspended as a Tory MP last week after further allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him, a day after he tendered his resignation to the prime minister.

Johnson had apologised for giving the former deputy chief whip a government role. He admitted he had been aware of a misconduct complaint made against Pincher in 2019 but had made a "bad mistake" by not acting on it.

Click to read Matthew Engel's assessment of the UK's political landscape after Boris Johnson's resignation as Conservative leader

Next Tory leader key candidates

Penny Mordaunt

Trade minister and former defence secretary who was once seen as a dark-horse candidate but is now near the head of the market. The MP for Portsmouth North, Mordaunt is a prominent Brexit supporter but backed Jeremy Hunt in the previous leadership contest.

Rishi Sunak

The former chancellor of the exchequer has long been among the favourites to be the next Tory leader. However, his stint as chancellor was not without controversy and he was criticised for u-turns relating to the cost-of-living crisis.

Sajid Javid

Resigned as health secretary on Tuesday and launched a damning attack on Johnson the following day. Another former chancellor, Javid failed to make it to the final round of the 2019 leadership contest.

Liz Truss

Incumbent foreign secretary has made no secret of her leadership ambitions and has spent time carefully building a support network in Westminster, which suggests she will run for the top job.

Ben Wallace

Defence secretary had been a Johnson loyalist but is likely to put his hat in the ring. Has earned admiration for his calm, straight-talking approach to both defence spending and the war in Ukraine.

Nadhim Zahawi

Named vaccines minister during the coronavirus pandemic before becoming education secretary and replaced Sunak as chancellor before swiftly joining the calls for Johnson to step down.

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