Conservative Party leadership Timetable

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Friday 7 June - Theresa May will officially resign as Conservative Party leader in a letter to the Tories' 1922 Committee.

Monday 10 June - Leadership candidates have between 10am and 5pm to formally apply to enter the contest. Each candidate will need the backing of eight MPs in order to join the race.This is a change from the last Tory leadership election in 2016, when candidates needed the initial backing of only two MPs.

The 1922 committee will announce the final list of candidates at 5.30pm.

11/12 June - The candidates will take part in the first hustings event organised by the 1922 Committee.Only Conservative MPs will be able to attend.

13 June - The first ballot of Tory MPs will take place. Each MP will cast their vote - either in person or by proxy - by posting their papers into black tin boxes in Committee Room 14 in parliament.

The votes will then be counted in another room before the 1922 Committee's co-chairmen, Dame Cheryl Gillan and Charles Walker, will announce the results.

Candidates will be required to win 5% of votes (a total of 17 MPs) to move on from the first round. If candidates don't meet the threshold, they will be eliminated.If all candidates (or indeed no candidates) meet the threshold, the one with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated. If no candidates meet the threshold and there is a tie at the bottom, there will be a "frank discussion" with those candidates about whether or not they agree to drop out.If they don't, this could mean the ballot is voted on again.

17 June - The candidates will take part in a second hustings event organised by the 1922 Committee.

18 June - A second ballot of Tory MPs will take place with candidates this time requiring 10% of votes (33 MPs) to make it through the second round.The same rules as the first ballot on candidates being eliminated will apply.

19/20 June - A third, fourth, fifth and possibly sixth ballot of Tory MPs will be held, depending on how many rounds of voting are needed to whittle the candidates down to a final pair.At each round, the candidate with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated.

22 June - The final pair of candidates are expected to be in Birmingham to take part in the first hustings event in front of Conservative Party members.

Further hustings events are likely to be held in every region of the country.

22 July - It is expected the party's grassroots members will be asked to submit their vote for their favoured candidate by 5pm on 22 July.

23 July - This could see the announcement of the winning candidate by the 1922 Committee and might also be the day Theresa May visits the Queen to resign as prime minister in order to hand over to her successor.