AKIPRESS.COM - Britain will have a new prime minister by 2 September, after the executive of the Conservative party’s backbench 1922 Committee set a tighter than expected timetable for selecting a new leader, according to The Guardian.

David Cameron announced last Friday that he would step down following the historic EU referendum result, paving the way for a new prime minister to be appointed by the time of the party’s conference in October.

But the 1922 executive, chaired by the MP Graham Brady, which met on Monday lunchtime, said it would recommend a more rapid process. “Things are in our hands, and we are moving as quickly as possible,” said Brady. “We think that the party and the country want certainty.”

He added that if a new prime minister presses ahead with the crucial renegotiations, they could then call a general election to allow the public to give their verdict on Britain’s new relationship with the EU.

“We have just been given a very clear steer, direction by the people of Britain... we have a big complicated task to accomplish,” he told Sky News. “I think it is entirely reasonable to expect that the government should embark on that, get on with that, seek to negotiate as good an outcome as we can before the people then are asked to approve or reject that in a general election.”

Nominations for the Conservative leadership will open on Wednesday evening, and close on Thursday; and the final result will be declared by 2 September.

If there are more than two candidates, Conservative MPs will hold rounds of voting, the first of which will be on 5 July, with the least popular hopeful being eliminated each time. The party’s members will then be given a choice – almost certainly of two contenders.