Centre in westminster, where theyll make their first speech as leader moments later. This is the scene outside the hall, where mps and officials are starting to arrive to take their seats. Norman smith is there for us. Borisjohnson Boris Johnson and jeremy hunt borisjohnson and jeremy hunt are expected to arrive in the next two minutes on the challenge facing whoever wins is enormous. Tonight the tory party will give their vision to the country and deliver brexit by october the 31st. Well take you through every moment of this crucial day, as the conservative party selects the uks next Prime Minister. Good morning and welcome to westminster. Within the next hour, we will know who will be our next Prime Minister, as the result of the conservative leadership contest is announced. This is the scene live at the Queen Elizabeth ii Conference Centre here in westminster where the outcome of the ballot of conservative Party Members will be revealed. Borisjohnson is the clear favourite over his rival, the foreign secretaryjeremy hunt. But mrjohnson could face ministerial resignations before he even enters downing street, as several cabinet members say they cant support his do or die pledge to leave the eu by the end of october. This is what were expecting to happen over the next hour. One of these two men, jeremy hunt or borisjohnson, will be voted in as leader of the conservative party, after a ballot of about 160,000 tory Party Members. We are expecting that result in about a0 minutes from the Queen Elizabeth ii Conference Centre in westminster. After the result is announced, the new conservative leader will make his first speech just afterwards at around 11 50. The winner will officially become Prime Minister on wednesday. Our assistant Political Editor norman smith is outside the qe2 centre. The envelope with the result has been handed over to two of the executives from the conservative 1922 Backbench Committee and im told they have not opened it and will not open it untiljust moments before jeremy hunt and will not open it untiljust moments beforejeremy hunt and borisjohnson go on stage. Before that both men will be taken to one side and told privately the result. The expectation is that it will be a victory, and a big victory for Boris Johnson, although his team this morning were trying to play down expectations a bit, but if he does secure a commanding victory, that will hugely strengthen his hand. Yes, in delivering the sort of brexit he wants to deliver, but also in facing down those critics are beginning to muster on his back benches to oppose any move to take britain out without an agreement. This morning, as he left, mrjohnson was not taking anything for granted. Is this your dream job at a nightmare time, mrjohnson . Good morning, good morning, good morning. How are you feeling, mrjohnson . Are you packed and ready to go . Youve waited your whole life for this moment. How are you feeling, mrjohnson . Good morning, sir. Good morning, how are you . Is it all to play for, do you agree . Have you got your top team in place . All to play for, all to play for. Thank you. As perjeremy hunt i spoke to him when he arrived at cabinet this morning, and he said it wasjust about to begin. You might have a point as we are heading into extraordinary uncertainty, whether the government can survive with a tiny majority ofjust two, and as for tiny majority ofjust two, and as foer tiny majority ofjust two, and as for mr hunt, he has fought a more challenging and combative campaign than many expected and this morning he was not conceding defeat. Do you think youve won, mr hunt . Who knows . Not long to know. Do you know the result . No, i dont. Are you feeling positive . Im feeling very positive, but who knows what is going to happen . If you dont win, will you serve in a borisjohnson cabinet . All to be seen, lets wait for the result. Would you like to stay on as foreign secretary . Im going to walk to work now. Dont worry im not at a rock concert, its all kicking off with Opera Singers belting it out and the peoples vote people belting it out and there is a carnival, circus, its a real, call it what you will. With me as priti patel, a prominent borisjohnson with me as priti patel, a prominent Boris Johnson supporter, and with me as priti patel, a prominent borisjohnson supporter, and how does borisjohnson complete task number one, which is a the tory party after a Bruising Campaign . Uniting the tory party. That is the priority, unity. We need a fresh start under new leader in the party, a long overdue change and it gives us a long overdue change and it gives usa a long overdue change and it gives us a fantastic opportunity to unite asa us a fantastic opportunity to unite as a party, come together and do something incredibly important, when we look around us here, put our shoulder to the wheel and get on and deliver brexit. What do you say to those of your colleagues who have in effect put borisjohnson, if he wins, on notice, that if he seeks to ta ke wins, on notice, that if he seeks to take the country out of the eu without an agreement they could possibly help to bring down his government. What would you say to them . First of all it is imperative we deliver brexit and we also have to remember that there is no scope 110w to remember that there is no scope now for Self Indulgence and individual mps expressing their own views. For the conservative party to deliver for our country, we have views. For the conservative party to deliverfor our country, we have to unite and come together, which means asa unite and come together, which means as a party, collectively, in parliament, we have to work day and night to deliver and work to negotiate the right kind of arrangement and agreement that can ta ke arrangement and agreement that can take us out of the European Union. We know what Boris Johnson take us out of the European Union. We know what borisjohnson offers to the brexiteers, but what does he offer to remainers . How does he reach out to those in the country, the 48 , who are worried about what a borisjohnson the 48 , who are worried about what a Boris Johnson brexit the 48 , who are worried about what a Borisjohnson Brexit might look like. I dont think anybody should be worried about what brexit should look like under boriss leadership, primarily because he has spoken very clearly throughout his own campaign that he will unite the country by delivering brexit, and of course, all this nonsense about resignations and people saying they dont want no deal, we have to remember that many of those ministers and members of parliament stood on a platform in 2017 where no deal was better than a bad deal because we want to get the best deal, a better dealfor britain and our country which effectively means we will deliver brexit but then move on and focus on all the big issues that matter to the british public. How confident are you that borisjohnson will actually deliver the sort of brexit you want, in other words, not a reheated mrs mays deal, because there has been a suggestion he might have struck a ha rd suggestion he might have struck a hard line during the campaign but onceit hard line during the campaign but once it comes to the negotiations he might have to go back to something similarto mrs might have to go back to something similar to mrs mays agreement. First and foremost, he has been very clear that he will negotiate in good faith and we have to start from that premise and that means having proper negotiations and engagement. He will speu negotiations and engagement. He will spell out the negotiating strategy and the language he will use, but his focus, he could not have been any his focus, he could not have been a ny clearer his focus, he could not have been any clearer during the contest, that he will deliver brexit. We are going to leave in october the 31st which means basically the whole machinery of government, parliament, members of government, parliament, members of parliament and the conservative party uniting and coming together, working hard, to get to that end state where we are going to leave. Priti patel, thank you for your time. We expect borisjohnson, if it is him, to say a few words after the result, the speech of about ten minutes or so and we are told the theme will be that message of unity, but i guess the first real test of that will come in the composition of his cabinet and how far he is ready to keep or bring in former remainers 01 to keep or bring in former remainers or whether this becomes a much more one dimensional brexit cabinet. That will give us a sense of how far borisjohnson is truly prepared to reach out and try to bind his Party Together. Norman, thank you very much. With me now is the former foreign secretary sir malcolm rifkind. Thank you forjoining us. Just to pick up what norman was saying, whoever it is, and the assumption is that it will be borisjohnson, the firstjob is party unity and so the choice of his cabinet will be crucial in that. You are quite right that the first question is about unity but the first phenomenon will be Party Disunity as a substantial portion of theresa mays cabinet will have already resigned and declined tojoin his will have already resigned and declined to join his government. Will have already resigned and declined tojoin his government. He will have had to factor that into his decisions. So he inherits an awkward squad and quite a big awkward squad and quite a big awkward squad. Its notjust an awkward squad. Its notjust an awkward squad, may that denigrates their importance, its a question of him recognising job as he and his friends were a thorn in theresa mays time and were able by modest numbers to prevent her getting what she wished, actually, the position is now reversed. There are at least up is now reversed. There are at least up to 50 tory mps who will not support no deal and as long as he seems to be talking in that sort of language, he will lose every vote in the house of commons. You are a former foreign secretary and defence secretary. Would you rather, in your position, looking from the height of experience, as you do, would you rather it was jeremy experience, as you do, would you rather it wasjeremy hunt . Experience, as you do, would you rather it was jeremy hunt . |j experience, as you do, would you rather it was jeremy hunt . I am an optimist by nation and we are told nowadays we have to be optimistic in the sun has come out today so maybe there is something in the thesis, but my problem with boris, and i have supported jeremy hunt, is that boris is not donald trump. He is highly intelligent, he not only reads books, he has written them and hes got very moderate views on every thing about from brexit. My problem is not his opinions apart from brexit, its that i have the gravest reservations as to whether he can cope with the burden of being Prime Minister. I worked with Margaret Thatcher and john major and they didnt have much in common, but what they did was an enormous capacity to absorb the minutiae and detail of the whole spectrum of government and give leadership. You cannot give leadership if you dont know what is going on in many parts of the government for which you are responsible. Which is why the choice of his cabinet will be absolutely crucial. That will be very, very important, absolutely so, but those of his supporters who said dont worry he will be a nonexecutive chairman with excellent people around him, the last thing the uk needs at the moment is a nonexecutive chairman, we need leadership and that is one thing boris would agree with me on, but the question is, can he provide it, not just the question is, can he provide it, notjust in terms of the rhetoric and speeches but in terms of actual strategic control of the government he will lead, and actually knowing that he is dealing with other professional politicians, those in the European Union who he will need to negotiate with. They are not second rate performers, they are damn good negotiators, as i know from my own experience. He is a former foreign secretary and former mayor of london and perhaps people are being a little unfair on him. He has held briefs and looked at that sort of detail before. You used an interesting phrase, you said he has held briefs, and that is exactly right. I dont think the judgment of him as foreign secretary was the high mark of him in his career in terms of public reputation, and he was a very good mare at london and hes good at winning elections. He is far ahead of anybody else as the star gold dust of campaigning. He connects in a way that a lot of politicians have not done for a number of years and that is important when youre trying to persuade the public in an election or some other time, that doesnt work when you deal with negotiations with the chancellor of germany president of france or whoever it might be. There is a rumour that anna milton has resigned from the government. Will we see throughout the day a drip and drip of people saying, iam the day a drip and drip of people saying, i am off . There will be the people who do not want to serve under boris even though you might like them and there will be those who he does not choose to keep because they dont meet his requirements. Remember, any Prime Minister has that very difficult dilemma. If you have 320 mp5, a maximum of 70 will be on your government and some will be in the house of lords so there will be disappointed people but this is a unique situation when people are queueing up not to serve in the government rather than queueing up to serve in it. He will still fill his government, that will not be a problem, but the problem is what comes problem, but the problem is what co m es after problem, but the problem is what comes after because the government has already gone down to a wafer thin majority in the house of commons. We have a by election on thursday which we may or may not hold or lose to the liberal democrats and that is the sign of things to come. Sir malcolm, thank you forjoining us. In a moment, well hear from lorna gordon in glasgow and sian lloyd in cardiff. But first, lets speak to our ireland correspondent emma vardy who is in belfast. Emma, what could a new pm mean for Northern Ireland . And obviously that backstop . Exactly, having a new Prime Minister coming to power could have huge implications here in Northern Ireland. The arrangements for the irish border have been some of the most difficult bits of brexit to resolve, and now, bothjeremy hunt and Boris Johnson have resolve, and now, bothjeremy hunt and borisjohnson have said that the agreement that theresa may made with the eu over the irish border, the irish backstop arrangement is effectively now dead and they are ripping that up and wanting to start afresh, if you like, and they want to go back to the eu to renegotiate those arrangements. Just remind people why brexit has been so difficult for the republic of ireland and Northern Ireland, its because you are taking one part of this island out of that big eu club that weve all been part of for so long and that means taking Northern Ireland away from the trading relationship and changing things almost overnight, if you like, with the way that businesses both north and south of this island have done their trading almost seamlessly for so long now, and that was so difficult in the brexit negotiations for theresa may. She signed up to the backstop arrangement which could have meant that Northern Ireland effectively would have stayed in the Single Market while the rest of the uk left, leaving Northern Ireland more tightly bound to eu rules. It was that fundamental principle that faced so much opposition in parliament. She could not get that deal through parliament, the backstop had such strong opposition to it and was one of the key reasons why she had to end her premiership and resign as she was unable to get her brexit withdrawal deal through parliament, so well bejeremy hunt or borisjohnson parliament, so well bejeremy hunt or Boris Johnson be parliament, so well bejeremy hunt or borisjohnson be able to resolve that conundrum . Well, or borisjohnson be able to resolve that conundrum . Well, nothing has changed. The eu say they will not renegotiate the backstop and you cannot have a deal without signing up cannot have a deal without signing up to those key set of rules, so they will face exactly the same set of difficulties that theresa may did. Jeremy hunt believes it can be solved through technology, Boris Johnson says lets move on to the future trading relationship and sought the irish border out there. Both of those have been rejected already by the eu, so a lot of apprehension here about what the future will hold under a new Prime Minister. Just confirming the rumour we brought you a moment ago that anne milton has resigned as a government minister, putting that down to her grave concern about the threat of a no deal brexit. She said, that with regret, she has taken the decision, having abstained in about last week, i have resigned from the government, it has been an honour to serve on the conservative front bench is, and she passes on her thanks to everyone she has worked alongside. That is the first resignation while we have been on air. Lets go back to lorna gordon, our correspondent in glasgow. A lot of attention on what borisjohnson, if it is indeed him, what his appointment would mean as far as the uk is concerned, and already Nicola Sturgeon has made her views clear on that. Absolutely, for some weeks now, the warning bells have been ringing in scotland. They hav