Who will The Queen appoint as Prime Minister in June?

Theresa May has announced that she will call a snap General Election for June 8th in which the British public will go the polls and vote for a new government.

The current Prime Minister will stand in the election as leader of the Conservative Party – but there are also many other candidates.

Theresa May – Conservatives

Theresa May, who has been Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for little under a year, is already the front-runner in the polls to be elected Prime Minister in June.

Number 10 Via Flickr

As of yet, she is an unelected Prime Minister as she took over from David Cameron and continued to implement his manifesto with his government.

This election gives Mrs May the chance to be put in office on her own manifesto and commitments and will give her a mandate to implement Brexit if she wins.

Daughter of a vicar, Mrs May was Home Secretary for six years before taking the top job. Before that, she was chairman of the Conservative Party and is Member of Parliament for Maidenhead.

Jeremy Corbyn – Labour

For just under two years, Jeremy Corbyn has been the leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition in the UK Parliament.

Jeremy Corbyn (via UK Parliament Flickr)

In that short time he has survived two leadership elections and is very popular with grassroots voters – however, not so popular with his own MPs.

Mr Corbyn has been an MP for Islington North since 1983. He only made his front bench debut in 2015.

However, opinion polls are firmly against him, with more people saying ‘don’t know’ would make a better Prime Minister than Mr Corbyn himself.

The 67-year-old has said that he ‘welcomes’ a General Election and will vote wth the government to trigger a snap election.

Tim Farron – Liberal Democrats

Tim Farron has been leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2015, following in the footsteps of former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Tim Farron by Liberal Democrats via Flickr CC

He has been Member of Parliament for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005 and had an 18% majority in the 2015 General Election.

Mr Farron will be going into this election as the advocate for stopping Brexit and remaining a member of the European Union.

Upon hearing the news that there will be an election, Mr Farron said that only the Lib Dems can prevent Conservative majority and that “if you want a Britain that is open, tolerant and united, this is your chance.”

The Lib Dems will be hoping to perform much better in the 2017 General Election that they did in the 2015 General Election where they only won eight seats. 

It is near on impossible for Tim Farron to be in a position to command a government and become Prime Minister in June. However, as we saw with his predecessor Nick Clegg, he could become Deputy Prime Minister if a coalition is formed in the event no political party has a parliamentary majority.

Paul Nuttall – UK Independence Party

Paul Nuttall is the newly elected leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) – the forth party leader since the 2015 General Election.

Paul Nuttall – by the European Parliament via Flickr CC

Mr Nuttall has previously stood for Parliament four times and has never been elected an MP.

His most recent defeat was in the Stoke-on-Trent by-election where he lost to Labour after it was revealed that he lied about losing close friends in the Hillsborough Disaster.

With no MPs in Parliament and the party in turmoil, it is very hard to see Mr Nuttall travelling to Buckingham Palace in June.

UKIP’s sole policy was to leave the European Union. Now this has been achieved, it is likely many UKIP voters will flock elsewhere – probably the Conservative Party.

Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley – Green

Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley are co-leaders of the Green Party, having been elected in 2016 following the resignation of Natalie Bennett.

Caroline Lucas by Underclassrising via Flickr CC

In the unlikely event that the Green Party could command a government, only one of them could become Prime Minister.

Caroline Lucas would be the likely PM as she is currently the Green Party’s only MP.

The Green Party advocate for the abolition of the monarchy and will also campaign to stop Brexit from occurring.

Coalition

Of course, as we saw in the 2010 General Election, it is possible that no political party can command a majority in Parliament and a coalition government may have to be formed.

In 2010, we saw the Conservative Party work together in government with the Liberal Democrats. The arrangements were that David Cameron would be Prime Minister and Nick Clegg would be Deputy Prime Minister.

So, who will be invited to Buckingham Palace in June and asked to form a government? The most likely candidate is Theresa May. However, Labour is confident that if Jeremy Corbyn travels across the country getting his message across, he could be in Number 1o in just a couple of months time.