British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's potential replacements have rushed to differentiate themselves from an increasingly crowded field.
Mr Johnson announced his resignation on Thursday after more than 50 ministers and lower level officials resigned in protest over his conduct.
The next party leader will automatically become prime minister without a general election.
An influential Conservative Party committee is expected to lay out the rules for the leadership contest on Monday.
The field is expected to be narrowed to two before parliament breaks for its summer recess on July 21.
Party members around the country will then vote on the final choice before the end of August.
Mr Johnson has said he will remain prime minister until his successor is chosen.
Here's everyone we know is in the race so far.
Jeremy Hunt
The former foreign secretary finished second to Mr Johnson in the 2019 leadership contest.
He voted to oust Mr Johnson in a confidence vote last month and supported remaining in the EU in the 2016 Brexit vote.
Mr Hunt said in a weekend interview he wanted to "restore trust, grow economy and win the next election".
"I am the only major candidate who has not served in Boris Johnson's government," he told The Telegraph newspaper.
"I called out what was going wrong long before any of the other major contenders and I have not been defending the indefensible."
Rishi Sunak
The former chancellor of the exchequer promised to confront the difficult economic backdrop with "honesty, seriousness and determination" in a campaign video released on Friday.
Mr Sunak was made chancellor (equivalent to Australia's treasurer) in early 2020, and was praised for a COVID-19 economic rescue package.
But he later faced criticism for not giving enough cost-of-living support to households.
Revelations this year about his wealthy wife's non-domiciled tax status and a fine he received for breaking COVID lockdown rules have damaged his standing.
Penny Mordaunt
The former defence secretary had a rocky start to her leadership campaign after being forced to edit convicted killer Oscar Pistorius out of her first promotional video.
The launch video featured Pistorius at the 2012 Paralympics, two years before being convicted of killing his girlfriend. He has since been edited out.
Several public figures including Paralympian Jonnie Peacock also publicly asked to be taken out of the video.
Ms Mordaunt says leadership in Britain "needs to become a little less about the leader and a lot more about the ship".
She has held various roles in successive governments and was the first woman to become minister for the armed forces and secretary of state for defence.
Suella Braverman
The current Attorney-General has promised to "move heaven and earth" to restore trust in the government.
She was heavily criticised by lawyers after the government sought to break international law over post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland.
She campaigned to leave the EU and was a junior minister in the Brexit department under Theresa May.
Liz Truss
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss's outspoken comments about Vladimir Putin have seen her accused of inflaming tensions between Russia and the UK.
Multiple photo-ops in Russia before the invasion of Ukraine — including snaps wearing a large faux-fur hat in Moscow and riding in a tank near in snowy Estonia — earned her a reputation for "Instagram diplomacy".
She launched her leadership bid in The Telegraph on Sunday when she declared it was time to get back to Conservative values.
Truss has held multiple cabinet positions, including foreign secretary, and was UK's lead negotiator with the EU in post-Brexit talks.
Tom Tugendhat
Mr Tugendhat is the chair of parliament's foreign affairs committee and a former soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He was promoted to a major in the British Territorial Army in 2010.
He founded the China Research Group in 2020, and has since been banned from entering China, Hong Kong and Macau for spreading what the Chinese government called "lies and disinformation".
"The reason I'm standing is simple," he wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
"Trust in our politics and our party is collapsing. We need a clean start."
Kemi Badenoch
Ms Badenoch was equalities minister and local government, faith and communities minister before resigning last week.
The former banker was urged to resign by LGBT groups over an alleged delay in banning so-called gay conversion therapy while she was equalities minister.
Ms Badenoch has promised a "focus on the essentials".
"People are exhausted by platitudes and empty rhetoric," she wrote in The Times newspaper.
"Loving our country, our people or our party is not enough."
Nadhim Zahawi
Mr Zahawi has only been in the chancellor's job since last week, when Rishi Sunak resigned in protest at Boris Johnson's conduct.
Questions have since been raised about his personal finances, prompting him to claim he is "clearly being smeared".
Civil servants flagged tax concerns over the former education secretary and vaccines minister before he was appointed, The Observer newspaper reported on Monday.
There has been no suggestion of wrongdoing.
"I was not aware of this, I have always paid my taxes, I have declared my taxes in the UK," he told Sky News.
"I am going to make a commitment today that if I am prime minister I am going to publish my accounts annually."
Mr Zahawi's personal story as a former refugee from Iraq who came to Britain as a child sets him apart from other contenders.
He co-founded polling company YouGov before entering parliament in 2010.
Sajid Javid
The former banker and health minister was one of the first cabinet minister to resign in protest over Mr Johnson's repeated scandals, declaring "enough is enough".
He resigned as Mr Johnson's chancellor in 2020 after Mr Johnson's chief advisor fired one of Mr Javid's aides without his permission and without telling him.
Then rising star of the party Rishi Sunak was tipped to be kept in the Treasury during a cabinet reshuffle to "keep an eye on" Mr Javid after the incident, The Guardian said at the time.
Mr Javid met with Mr Johnson on the day of the reshuffle then announced his resignation, telling PA Media "no self-respecting minister would accept" the terms he was offered to keep the job.
The son of Pakistani Muslim immigrant parents, he is an admirer of Margaret Thatcher and finished fourth in the 2019 leadership contest.
His resignation speech was one of the triggers that saw more than 50 ministers resign last week.
"I do fear that the reset button can only work so many times," he told the House of Commons.
"There's only so many times you can turn that machine on and off before you realise something is fundamentally wrong."
Grant Shapps
Dubbed "Two Tags" by a former Labour deputy PM, Mr Shapps came under fire in 2012 when it emerged he had used an alter ego to pose as a millionaire web guru.
Mr Shapps, as Michael Green, claimed customers could make $20,000 in 20 days with help from online guides sold by he and his wife, according to reports by The Guardian.
Mr Shapps claimed it was a pen name.
He was accused of using a fake account to remove embarrassing material from his Wikipedia page and make unflattering edits about other politicians, including fellow Conservative MPs.
He has been secretary of state for Transport since 2019, and was first elected in 2005.
He has been a loyal defender of Mr Johnson, but said on Sunday "with the right leader" the UK's "best days" are still ahead.
Rehman Chishti
Mr Chishti started out his political career as an adviser to former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto from 1999-2007.
He is considered the biggest outsider in the field of candidates.
He was appointed as a minister in the Foreign Office last week, claiming he offered a "fresh start".
He served as vice chair of the Conservative Party for Communities in 2018 and the prime ministerial trade envoy to Pakistan from 2017-2018.
ABC/AP
