Rishi Sunak will become the UK’s next prime minister after Conservative leadership rival Penny Mordaunt dropped out of the race at the last minute.
The former chancellor was selected by MPs to succeed Liz Truss as Tory leader and will enter Downing Street less than two months after he lost the last race.
The extraordinary turn of events mean he will be the UK’s third prime minister in seven weeks, after Ms Truss resigned just 44 days into her premiership.
Mr Sunak’s comeback represents a number of symbolic milestones: He will be the UK’s first Hindu prime minister, the first of Asian heritage, and the youngest for more than 200 years at the age of 42.
Ms Mordaunt bowed out of the race at the eleventh hour after failing to get the 100 nominations from Tory MPs required by the 2pm deadline.
Rishi Sunak wins race to be prime minister – live updates
Ms Mordaunt only had 25 public backers as of Monday morning, though a source from her campaign team claimed she had up to 90 nominations and would not be pulling out of the race, as pressure piled on her to concede.
Seconds before the results were due to be announced, Ms Mordaunt tweeted that she had pulled out.
“These are unprecedented times. Despite the compressed timetable for the leadership contest it is clear that colleagues feel we need certainty,” she said.
“They have taken this decision in good faith for the sake of the country.”
She added: “We all owe it to the country to each other and to Rishi to unite and work together for the good of the nation.
“There is much work to be done”
Her decision came after Boris Johnson also withdrew from the contest on Sunday evening, despite claiming he had the backing of at least the 100 MPs required to make it on to the ballot.
The former prime minister said he had “cleared the very high hurdle of 102 nominations”, but came to the conclusion that “this is simply not the right time” for his return to frontline politics – just six weeks after he was officially ousted.
It is not clear exactly how many nominations Ms Mordaunt received.
Bob Seely, who was a key backer of Ms Mordaunt, told Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby: “We were pretty close, it was touch and go. I don’t know the numbers, but I know we were close.”
He added: “What is critical now is that we give Rishi 100% of our support – we have to remember that our opponents are in front of us in the House of Commons, not behind us. We have got to come together.”
His comments were echoed by James Cleverly, the foreign secretary and one of several cabinet ministers to back Mr Sunak following Mr Johnson’s withdrawal.
Announcing the results of the leadership race, Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the powerful 1922 committee, said the Conservative Party only received one “valid” nomination to be the leader and therefore prime minister – Mr Sunak.
Had Ms Mordaunt stayed in the race and received over 100 nominations, the vote would have gone to party members.
The MP for Portsmouth North, who came third in the race to become prime minister last time round, was the first candidate to declare her leadership bid on Friday afternoon.
The second leadership contest in three months began last Thursday after the extraordinary resignation of Liz Truss.
Mr Sunak was runner-up in the last leadership race, securing the highest backing from MPs but losing out to the outgoing prime minister after the vote went to members.
Ms Truss won on a mandate to slash taxes to spark economic growth, but she was forced to row back on almost all of her economic policies after her mini-budget sent the markets into financial turmoil and the pound crashing.
Mr Sunak had called her plans “fairy-tale economics”, and many MPs backing him said he was the right candidate to restore economic credibility.
Mr Sunak will not officially become prime minister until Ms Truss formally tenders her resignation with King Charles, when he will be invited to form a government.