Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not take part in the contest to replace outgoing leader Liz Truss

This is despite reports that some Conservative MPs had backedJohnson for the top job and that he had told allies over the last couple of days that he would formally join the contest. With this news, the Conservative field for leadership appears to be wide open.

It is unclear what exactly changed for Johnson in the span of a few days. The U.K.’s Telegraph newspaper reported on Tuesday that he was “on the brink” of confirming his candidacy and had already started to line up support from potential donors.

But in a statement late Sunday, Johnson said it was “simply not the right time.” He added he had “cleared the very high hurdle of 102 nominations” to take part in the latter stages of the contest.

Around 60 lawmakers had publicly backed the ex-PM but there had been question marks over exactly how many nominations he had received.

Johnson mentioned his two rivals in his statement, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, who have both officially entered the contest.

“And though I have reached out to both Rishi and Penny — because I hoped that we could come together in the national interest — we have sadly not been able to work out a way of doing this,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment outside of regular office hours in London.
Truss announced her decision to step down as leader of the U.K.’s governing Conservative Party on Monday, saying she wanted to focus on her young family. An election to replace her will take place over the summer.

All eyes on Rishi Sunak

RISHI Sunak ditched his usual slick branding and snazzy campaign videos.

The runaway favourite to replace Liz Truss hoovered up almost half of Tory MPs and won over some big-name backers from the Brexit wing of the party.