Tory leadership contest: The runners and riders

What a week it has been for British politics. Exactly 7 days ago the landscape of contemporary Westminster life changed completely as the British people voted to leave the European Union and thus drive a huge splinter through both main political parties.

With the Labour party in a tug-of-war between its members and MPs, the Conservatives were rocked as David Cameron resigned almost immediately after the result of the referendum became known.

The race to become the next Tory leader and subsequently prime minister of the country began as Cameron stood on the podium outside 10 Downing Street with his white flag, with former London mayor Boris Johnson poised to take over having run a successful campaign to leave the EU.

However, Johnson too was forced into waving his own white flag yesterday as former ally and expected junior partner Michael Gove out-manoeuvred him at the eleventh hour.

That leaves the final number of candidates in the Tory leadership contest down to 5, and here they are:

Theresa May

May was educated at Oxford before working at the Bank of England until becoming an MP in 1997. She was notably absent for much of the EU referendum campaign despite being on the Remain side. She has been Home Secretary for 6 years, which is no mean feat considering the fates of her predecessors.

Michael Gove

An interesting character, Gove was put up for adoption by an unmarried mother in Edinburgh, and went on to study in Aberdeen and Oxford on his way to working as a journalist for The times and others. A fervent backer of the Leave vote during the referendum alongside Boris Johnson, he was expected to back the former London mayor before a last-minute usurpation catapulted him to the front of the queue.

Stephen Crabb

Crabb, from Inverness, is probably the most liberal of all the candidates. After being elected in 2005, he has a background of helping to reach out to poorer communities, something that Conservatives may not necessarily be worried about. Relatively little experience compared with the others, he was supportive of the Remain campaign.

Andrea Leadsom

Leadsom held a long career in banking prior to her entrance to the House of Commons in 2010, and she was very strongly in favour of Brexit. Although a minister of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, she has kept a fairly low profile and may struggle to get past the first round of voting.

Liam Fox

Another Scottish-born Conservative, Fox studied medicine at Glasgow University and was a GP until his election in 1992. He has a wealth of frontbench experience, but resigned from the coalition in 2011 when he was embroiled in a scandal with lobbyist Adam Werrity.