24 May 2019updated 31 Jul 2023 3:04pm

The short Conservative leadership timetable is a gift to Boris Johnson

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - NOVEMBER 24: Conservative party MP Boris Johnson delivers his speech during the Democratic Unionist Party annual conference at the Crown Plaza Hotel on November 24, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The DUP strongly oppose the propsed Brexit deal brokered between the UK government and the EU. The DUP currently props up the Conservative UK government following the last general election. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Boris Johnson has won an early boost in the Conservative leadership election, thanks to the timetable. CCHQ, and the backbench 1922 Committee, have set out how the process will work, with a series of hustings among MPs to be conducted over the month of June and a short, sharp contest among ordinary Conservative members over the month of July.

It makes it significantly shorter than any of the three leadership elections Labour have held since re-entering opposition in 2010, and while the 2005 Conservative leadership contest won by David Cameron was technically of equivalent length, as it only kicked off officially on 7 October, Michael Howard had announced his intention to stand down in May of that year, and the election-winning speech given by Cameron at Conservative party conference had already been delivered by the time the contest began.