‘Not the right time’: Johnson pulls out of leadership race -Sunak could be PM as early as today
by 0 
by 0 Boris Johnson has pulled out of the Conservative leadership race.
His withdrawal leaves the path open for Rishi Sunak, who has a chance of picking up the keys to Downing Street as early as today.
The former prime minister had the public backing of 59 Tory MPs – far short of the 100 required to be included on the ballot.
Path to No 10 opens for Sunak – live updates
Mr Sunak has more than 150 backers, a significant lead over Penny Mordaunt, who has 25.
If both of them secure support from at least 100 MPs by this afternoon, Conservative Party members will have the chance to vote for their preferred candidate.
We’ll find out at 2pm who has made it on to the ballot – and if Mr Sunak is the only one to reach this threshold, he will automatically become the UK’s third prime minister this year.
You can find out more about today’s key timings here, with live coverage on Sky News throughout the day.
In his statement, Mr Johnson said he had “cleared the very high hurdle of 102 nominations”, but came to the conclusion that “this is simply not the right time”.
He said he had “reached out” to leadership rivals Mr Sunak and Ms Mordaunt to see if they could work together in the national interest, but it had not proved possible.
Mr Johnson added that although he was “attracted” to run because of the support from his colleagues, “you can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament”.
In response, Mr Sunak tweeted: “Although he has decided not to run for PM again, I truly hope he continues to contribute to public life at home and abroad.”
One of Mr Johnson’s key allies told Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby that he had said he thinks two-thirds of the party are against him and that he would be unable to govern like Liz Truss.
Another ally said the anti-Johnson coalition in parliament is “very loud” and “very motivated”.
The first Johnson backer to publicly switch to Mr Sunak was Nadhim Zahawi, the former chancellor, who tweeted “a day is a long time in politics”.
He had only endorsed Mr Johnson on Sunday morning.
Read more:
Why Johnson dropped out – in his own words
Who are bookies backing to be the next PM?
On Sunday, several long-time allies of Mr Johnson – including Suella Braverman and Steve Baker – threw their support behind Mr Sunak.
Mr Baker, the former head of backbench Brexiteers, had warned Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday that a potential comeback by Mr Johnson would be a “guaranteed disaster”.
