LONDON: A host of candidates to replace Theresa May as British prime mi-nister launched their campaigns on Monday promising to solve the turmoil of Brexit and taking shots at frontrunner Boris Johnson.

May stepped down as lea­der of the ruling Conserva­tive Party on Friday, having failed three times to win parliament’s support for a Euro­pean Union divorce deal that was supposed to address Britain’s biggest political crisis in a generation.

Nominations to replace her had to be submitted on Monday, and the party’s 1922 Committee, which is running the contest, said 10 candidates had achieved the required support of at least eight of the Conservatives’ 300-plus elected lawmakers.

An 11th, Sam Gyimah, withdrew shortly before the announcement saying he had not been able to build sufficient support. He was the only one to support holding a second Brexit referendum.

Conservative lawmakers will hold their first round of voting on Thursday to begin whittling the field down.

All the public campaign launches on Monday set out domestic agendas, but it was Brexit that dominated, with overt and thinly-veiled digs at former foreign minister Johnson.

“If I get through, which I am sure I will actually, to the final two against Mr Johnson, this is what I will say to him: ‘Mr Johnson, whatever you do, don’t pull out’,” said environment minister Michael Gove, who scuppered Johnsons 2016 leadership bid by pulling his support at the last moment to run himself.

“I know you have before, and I know you may not believe in your heart that you can do it, but the Conservative Party membership deserve a choice’.” Nearly all promised that they could solve the Brexit conundrum — which eluded May in three years of EU talks — in just three months, between the new leader being chosen at the end of July and the current exit date of Oct 31.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2019