The Conservatives are seeking to speed up the race to succeed Boris Johnson

The Conservative Party will try to reduce the number of candidates in the race to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson to two by July 20, a member of the committee overseeing the process said, as the number of candidates for the leadership grows.

The Tories’ so-called 1922 Commission will set out the exact rules and timetable for the succession race next week after Johnson was forced to resign from his party. Many MPs are pushing for a fast-track process.

Today, Transport Minister Grant Shapps became the fifth Conservative MP to formally announce a leadership bid, but many others are also expected to run.

Conservative MPs will hold a series of votes to whittle the number down to two final candidates, who will then be put to a postal vote by wider Tory members.

“Clearly what we want to do, and I think even the candidates will accept, is at a relatively early stage to remove some of those who are clearly not going to get enough support to make it to the bottom two,” said Jeffrey Clifton‑ Brown from the Commission on Times Radio.

Clifton-Brown stressed that this could be done by increasing the number of signatures from other Conservative MPs required to nominate candidates and increasing the threshold of votes candidates must receive to progress to the next round.

“I believe we will be able to frame a process to come up with two names by the time Parliament meets on July 20,” he said. “We should have an answer by the party conference in October and maybe before that.”

Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, one of the front-runners in the race to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said earlier today that he had decided not to run for the party leadership.

SOURCE: AMPE