What happens now?

While it may feel like the government is collapsing in front of our very eyes, there is indeed plenty of protocol for the resignation of an in-office prime minister.

“Normally the way it would work is that the existing prime minister would stay until a new leader of the party was elected, but it seems clear that there are some Conservative MPs who would not be happy with that arrangement,” Dr Daniel Gover, lecturer in British politics at Queen Mary University of London, tells Stylist.

Following Johnson’s resignation, the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs will set the timetable for the leadership contest. To take part in the race, an MP has to be nominated by eight colleagues, and a series of secret ballots will be held to whittle down the candidates until a leader is decided. The winner will then become Conservative Party leader and prime minister.

“It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister,” Johnson himself confirmed in a televised speech.

“I’ve agreed with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of our backbench MPs, that the process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week.”

“I’ve today appointed a Cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place,” he added.

Boris Johnson has announced he will resign as prime minister, but what does that really mean for the UK?