Leadership ballot: how the poll will work

Theresa May faces leadership ballot because 15 percent of the Tory MPs submitted letters of no confidence> Here’s now the vote works.

Anti-Brexit protesters wave flags outside the Houses of Parliament ahead of the leadership vote. Picture: AP.

Theresa May is facing a vote of no confidence because 15 percent of the Tory MPs have submitted letters to Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 backbench committee.

Mr Brady received 48 such letters to trigger the confidence vote late Tuesday night in London and he liaised with Mrs May to make the announcement before the financial markets opened on Wednesday morning.

The confidence vote is a straight yes or no question about whether MPs support Mrs May and the 316 Tory politicians will file into the parliament to secretly cast their vote between 5am and 7am this morning AEDT.

Mrs May only needs to get half of the votes, plus one to remain as Prime Minister. The process also means she cannot face another confidence vote for a further year.

But if she loses, Mrs May will stay on as Prime Minister until a replacement is voted in.

She cannot stand for leader, and all contenders are put on a ballot paper for Conservative party MPs to vote.

If there are more than two candidates then a series of ballots would take place, with the candidate receiving the lowest number of votes eliminated in each round. The votes are held on Tuesdays or Thursdays. Then when the list is whittled to the final two, the names are sent to all members of the Conservative party for a postal ballot.