READERS of the Border Telegraph have shared who they think the next Tory Party leader should be.

In response to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's resignation announcement on Thursday (July 7), this newspaper asked readers on Facebook to choose their preferred candidate to take over as PM from a list of MPs who could enter the leadership race this summer.

As part of the poll, people could give their votes to 15 options, these included: Penny Mordaunt, Ben Wallace, Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel, Sajid Javid, Nadhim Zahawi, Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat, Steve Baker, Suella Braverman, Jeremy Hunt, Dominic Raab, Nadine Dorries, Michael Gove, or Other.

According to our poll 44 per cent of people would have liked to see Ben Wallace, MP for Wyre and Preston North, take on the top Westminster job.

However, since this poll, Mr Wallace has ruled himself out of the race.

The next favourite from the list was former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, with 31 per cent of people choosing him as the next Tory leader.

Current Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, and Michael Gove (MP for Surrey Heath) all received votes.

Although she has not thrown her hat into the race, Home Secretary Priti Patel received two per cent of the votes in the poll. Ms Patel is joined by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss who also received two per cent of the votes.

The female Conservative MP who received the highest number of votes, six (which represents three per cent) was Penny Mordaunt.

Ms Mordaunt has had her campaign for the leadership role backed by Borders MP John Lamont 

At the time of publication, 11 MPs had put themselves for to become the next UK Prime Minister.

Candidates include: Rishi Sunak, Nadhim Zahawi, Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss, Suella Braverman, Rehman Chishti, Sajid Javid, Tom Tugendhat, and Jeremy Hunt.

Grant Shapps has since dropped out of the race.

The Border Telegraph's poll received 168 votes.