Timeline: Key dates in the Conservative leadership contest

The 1922 Committee of Conservative backbench MPs has revealed the timetable for the upcoming leadership election, due to kick off officially on Friday.

The committee will oversee the hustings and balloting of Conservative MPs to whittle the field of candidates, currently standing at 11, down to two.

The final two will go to hustings around the country to convince Conservative Party members to vote for them in the final ballot.

– Friday June 7 – Theresa May will step down as leader of the party, opening the call for nominations from 5pm.

Mrs May will continue as acting leader until a new one is chosen by the membership.

– Monday June 10 – Nominations will be received by the 1922 Committee between 10am and 5pm.

Candidates from the 313 Conservative MPs will require a proposer, a seconder and six other MPs to support their candidacy to continue to the first ballot.

– Tuesday June 11 – First round of hustings begins for candidates who reached the threshold with all Conservative MPs in attendance.

– Thursday June 13 – First ballot. Any candidate receiving 16 votes or fewer will be eliminated. The results are announced at 1pm.

– Sunday June 16 – Krishnan Guru-Murphy will host a leadership debate among the remaining candidates on Channel 4.

– Monday June 17 – Second round of hustings in front of Conservative MPs with the remaining candidates.

– Tuesday June 18 – Second ballot. Any candidate receiving 32 votes or fewer will be eliminated. The results are announced at 1pm.

At 8pm, Emily Maitlis will host a Conservative leadership debate entitled Our Next Prime Minister on BBC One.

– Wednesday June 19 – Third ballot, where the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. The results are announced at 6pm.

– Thursday June 20 – The fourth and fifth ballots which will continue until two candidates remain. The 1922 Committee says it has provision for further ballots, but this is unlikely. The results are announced at 1pm and 6pm respectively.

– Saturday June 22 – With two candidates, Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) will begin the membership hustings process for party members.

The party will aim for the hustings to take place in all 12 regions of the UK.

– Week commencing July 22 – A new leader will be announced following the ballot of about 160,000 Conservative members.