Britain's new Prime Minister will be announced on September 5, with the first votes to begin eliminating candidates in the contest to replace Boris Johnson coming this week, Reuters reported on Monday.

The 1922 committee of Conservative members of parliament (MPs), which organizes the leadership contest, said hopefuls would need at least 20 nominations from the party's 358 lawmakers to even proceed to the first round of votes on Wednesday.

Anyone who then received less than 30 votes will be eliminated before another vote follows on Thursday. Nearly all the contenders have promised extensive tax cuts to win over the support of their colleagues.

"I am very keen we get this concluded as smoothly, cleanly, and rapidly as possible," said Graham Brady, the committee's chair.

The field will be whittled down to a final two candidates by lawmakers, before a postal ballot of the Conservative Party's members, who number fewer than 200,000, takes place over the summer.

So far 11 candidates have thrown their hat in the ring to succeed Johnson as leader of the ruling Conservative Party and Prime Minister.

These include British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who on Sunday night launched her leadership bid for the Conservative party, as well as British Member of Parliament Rehman Chishti, who announced his candidacy hours after Truss did.

Another name that has come up as a possible replacement for Johnson is that of Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for transport and the longest serving Jewish lawmaker in Johnson’s cabinet.

A poll for the Conservative Home website on Monday found that former defense minister Penny Mordaunt was the most popular with members, followed by equalities minister Kemi Badenoch and Rishi Sunak, whose resignation as finance minister helped bring down Johnson.

Johnson announced late last week that he will resign as Conservative party leader amid resignations by several of his ministers.