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The UK's Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has resigned as Conservative leader, but he will stay on as Prime Minister until a new leader is found.

But when will this happen, how will a new leader be chosen and what can we expect to happen next?

Read on to find out more.

Who picks the new prime minister?

When the leader of the party who is in power resigns, members of that party pick a new leader and that person becomes prime minister.

In this case, the Conservative Party is the party in government, so its members will decide on who replaces Boris Johnson as leader and prime minister.

Each party has its own rules for how this happens.

For the Conservative Party, the first step is for different MPs within the party to put themselves forward as candidates to be in the running for the job of party leader.

Conservative MPs then vote on who they want to support in rounds, until it's whittled down to a final two.

When it gets to the final two candidates, all Conservative Party members - that's everyone who has signed up to be official supporters of the party, including members of the public - votes on who they want as the new leader.

Don't the public get a say?

Not in this case - it's important to understand that this process is not the same as UK general election.

General elections usually happen every five years. The last election was in 2019 when the Conservative party won a majority, so the next is likely to be in 2024.

During a general election adults vote to choose who will represent their local area in Parliament - their Member of Parliament. Officially people aren't voting for a particular leader - although who the leaders are often has an influence on how people vote.

Usually the political party that has the most MPs elected gets to form a government and the leader of that party - who is chosen by its members - becomes prime minister.

Sometimes new leaders make arrangements to call a general election but they don't have to. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said that he thinks there should be one following the prime ministers resignation and has called for a 'fresh start' in government.

Who will be prime minister until a new leader is chosen?

Boris Johnson will still be prime minister and will stay on until a new leader is chosen.

In the past, prime ministers who have chosen to step down have usually stayed in office until a new party leader has been decided. This happened with the previous to two PMs - David Cameron and Theresa May.

It's been suggested that process could last until the Autumn, although it could be much shorter.

What will Boris Johnson do until the new leader is chosen?

In a statement Boris Johnson has said that he will not try to put through new policies or "major changes of direction".

He has also said that big financial decisions should be left to the next prime minister and his or her team.