Nigel Farage has become the MP for Clacton-on-Sea (Image: Getty)
Rishi Sunak has announced that he will depart as leader of the Conservative Party, after a humbling election defeat has seen his party reduced to a meagre 121 seats, with two constituencies still to declare.
The outgoing prime minister, speaking outside Downing Street, revealed that he would quit as party leader "not immediately", but rather once the "formal arrangements" for selecting his successor were finalised.
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Mr Sunak's relegation to the back benches will spark a contest for the future leadership of the Conservative Party and Express readers have been clear in who they'd like to take over - but it's not a Tory MP.
In our readers' poll, Nigel Farage has emerged as the clear favourite to succeed Rishi Sunak. Despite being a distant 10/1 with the bookies, the new Reform UK MP for Clacton has been touted as a future Tory leader for some time.
But under what mechanism could Mr Farage take over the party he said last month had "betrayed" the British people? Express.co.uk breaks it down.
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How could Farage become Tory leader?
Mr Farage has previously said he would lead a merged party made up of Tory and Reform MPs (Image: Getty)
The GB News presenter has won a seat in Parliament for the first time, at the eighth time of asking.
After winning in Clacton, Mr Farage said triumphantly that the Tories' decimation had created a "massive gap on the centre-right of British politics", adding that it was his job to "fill it".
If the arch-Brexiteer wanted to replace Rishi Sunak, he would first have become a member of his party. But doing so would generate all sorts of issues.
One way he could step into the former PM's shoes is to defect to the Tories. This appears to be unlikely, given he stated during his victory speech earlier today in Essex that his win was the "first step" towards Reform UK winning "millions" of votes in future elections.
He said that his insurgent party would be targeting the next election in 2029, and warned that last night's results could spell the "beginning of the end of the Conservative Party".
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Mr Farage is entering Parliament at the eighth time of asking (Image: Getty)
However, if he did cross the floor, he would not need to call a by-election, so could in theory be immediately able to run for the leadership of the party. In reality though, given his comments about the Tories and his plans for Reform, pressure to call a by-election would be immense.
The other means through which Mr Farage could lead a version of the Tory Party is if it merges with Reform.
Last month, the former UKIP leader and godfather of Brexit, confirmed he would be willing to lead an amalgamated Reform and Tory party.
He told LBC: "I think something new is going to emerge on the centre-Right, I don’t know what it is called.
"But do I think I am capable of leading a national opposition to a Labour Party with a big majority where I can stand up and hold them to account on issues? Yes."
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He added: "They [the Tories] may be dead. They may well be dead. This may well be the end of their journey. I would be prepared to lead the centre-Right in this country."
One advocate of the Tories joining forces with Reform's big players is the now ex-Somerset MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.
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In May, he called on his party to make a "big, open and comprehensive offer" to Mr Farage and co.
On his GB News show he said: "With the help of Nigel Farage in a Conservative government, as a Conservative minister, with Boris Johnson probably returning as foreign secretary and welcoming the likes of (Reform deputy) Ben Habib and (Reform leader) Richard Tice into our party, as well as pursuing genuinely conservative policies, winning the next election suddenly becomes within reach."
Whether Mr Rees-Mogg is still keen on Mr Farage becoming a force within some form of united centre-right party, following the Tories' drubbing, is unclear. Further, there are plenty of leading Conservative voices that have opposed any dealings with Farage, such as Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch.
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