I may be missing something but... Can anyone please explan how Boris Johnson can be elected as new Conservative Party leader - and therefore Prime Minister - if he is not a serving MP ? Not at PM's Questions... Not talking to the Westminster press.. Not present at crucial debates... How on earth can that work ?
He's been an MP since the last election. I thought a replacement party leader while in government automatically became the PM without an election,didn't at least one PM do it in recent times (can't remember who).
Found this
The leader doesn't have to be an MP, but these days by convention they are. The last PM who was not an MP was Robert Gascoyne-Cecil (Prime Minister 1895-1902), who was instead a member of the House of Lords. This is unlikely to happen again, since the balance of power has shifted dramatically from the Lords to the Commons.
https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Prime-Minister-a-member-of-Parliament-in-the-UK-Why