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Boris Johson will be Britain’s next prime minister

Storyline:National News, World

Boris Johnson, the flamboyant pro-Brexit politician, will become the next prime minister of the United Kingdom.

Johnson was chosen as the leader of the ruling Conservative Party on Tuesday and will become prime minister on Wednesday. After Prime Minister Theresa May resigns, Johnson will go to Buckingham Palace on Wednesday afternoon to meet the queen, who will invite him to form the next government.

Johnson is the former mayor of London and resigned as foreign minister a year ago over May’s Brexit plans. He was the clear favourite to replace her, with polls putting him ahead by double digits.

He beat his rival, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, in an election that only Conservative lawmakers and party members were eligible to participate in. Under the U.K.’s parliamentary system, a new prime minister can be appointed without the need for a general election.

May’s decision to resign at the end of May came after months of chaos in Parliament due to Brexit, the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union.

Johnson was one of the leading faces of the 2016 campaign for the U.K. to leave E.U., a measure which won a narrow victory in a referendum. May had voted to remain, though she embraced the result of the referendum and spent the majority of her time in office pursuing a withdrawal agreement with E.U.