Boris Johnson, the animated gaffe-prone Brexiteer who has promised to lead Britain out of the European Union with or without a deal by Halloween, will replace Theresa May as prime minister after winning the leadership of the Conservative Party Tuesday.
His victory pushes the United Kingdom towards a Brexit showdown with the EU and a constitutional crisis at home, as British lawmakers have vowed to bring down any government that tries to leave the European bloc without a divorce deal.
Johnson, the face of the 2016 Brexit referendum, won the votes of 92,153 members of the Conservative party, to 46,656 for his rival, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Veteran British politician, George Galloway reacted by saying: “You’d have to have been out in the noonday sun, would certainly have to be English and being mad would help, if you thought Boris Johnson was the answer to Britain’s now rather critical problems.”
May will leave office on Wednesday, after going to see Queen Elizabeth, who will formally appoint Johnson before he enters Downing Street.
The result is a spectacular victory for one of Britain’s most flamboyant politicians, and places an avowed Brexit supporter in charge of the government for the first time since the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU in the shock 2016 referendum.
