Members of Parliament for the Conservative Party will cast their first ballots in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as party leader and prime minister.
After the nomination period ended, the eight remaining candidates participated in a hustings event in the House of Commons to try to win over their fellow lawmakers.
To go through the first round, they need 30 first-round votes.
Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat, and Nadhim Zahawi are all vying for the position of leader.
After the polls open at 13:30, we should know the results by 17:00 BST.
Over the course of the following several days, further votes will be cast to narrow the field of contenders down to a final two.
It will then be up to the roughly 160,000 members of the Conservative Party to select between the two finalists, and the winner will be revealed on September 5.
The former health secretary, Sajid Javid, and the junior minister, Rehman Chishti, withdrew from the race on Monday after failing to get the necessary nominations (the backing of at least 20 Tory MPs).
Ms. Mordaunt, minister of trade, will also formally start her candidacy on Wednesday morning. She has the support of the second-highest number of Conservative MPs.
Cabinet members Dominic Raab and Grant Shapps have come out in favour of Mr Sunak, whose departure as chancellor last week contributed to the downfall of Boris Johnson.
Mr. Sunak told the Daily Telegraph that lowering inflation is his “number one economic objective,” and he justified his decision not to pledge tax cuts by saying that previous Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would have agreed with him.
Ms. Truss, the current Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was able to win over minister Jacob Rees-Mogg and culture secretary Nadine Dorries, two staunch Johnson supporters, on Tuesday.
Boris Johnson, who just announced his resignation, will go before Parliament for the first time to answer Prime Minister’s Questions at noon, before voting begins.
Mr. Johnson’s declaration was precipitated by a cabinet walkout over his handling of the Chris Pincher affair.
Mr. Johnson said he “wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s chances with my support” when asked who he would back in the contest to succeed him.
