What happens next after Theresa May steps down as Prime Minister and Tory leader?

NOW Theresa May has officially resigned as Prime Minister, the race begins to find who will take over.

The PM will technically stay in post in post until her successor can be found.

The provisional plan will only see Mrs May finally step down in late July, with a formal contest not actually triggered until June 10.

But in the meantime she will host US President Donald Trump for his first state visit in the first week of June.

The pair are set to attend a series of events to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings during World War II.

The President is also set to bring over his four adult children (and their spouses) to meet the Queen, too.

When that's done and dusted, the squabbling officially begins, with the aim of having a leadership contest that will last several weeks.

Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove are considered frontrunners - but as many as 20 Tory MPs could throw their hats in the ring.

Tory bosses at CCHQ outlined the process today - which will start in the week commencing the 10th of June when nominations will close.

Tory MPs will cast their own ballots for who they want to be the next PM - which will likely take a number of rounds to whittle the candidates down.

Each time the person with the least votes is eliminated.

Some will also drop out as it's clear they won't have enough support from their peers.

The final candidates - which is usually two but could be more than that this time - will then be put to a ballot of the 120,000 members at the end of June.

That stage will take a few weeks and will feature a number of debates around the country, Tory bosses said.

Party chiefs want the process to be opened up to non-members too so the public can ask questions for who will be the next PM.

Even a TV debate could be on the cards, sources told the Evening Standard.

Last time around Mrs May and Andrea Leadsom made it to the final two, but the latter dropped out after she gave an interview where she appeared to say that she would be a better candidate as she had children.

That meant the final stage was skipped and Tory members didn't get to have their say.

The new PM will therefore be in place before the summer holidays, when MPs go back to their constituencies.

Mrs May will only officially stop being PM when the new person takes over.

The Tory backbench boss Sir Graham Brady or the Tory Chairman Brandon Lewis is likely to make the formal announcement.

When the time comes, Mrs will go to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen and formally end her time as the country's leader.

Whoever wins will then go to meet her afterwards and take the reins from then onwards.

And despite close Cabinet allies’ advice, the PM still hopes that will give her one final chance to reshape her disastrous new Brexit offer - unveiled to uproar this week - and salvage something from her three year Premiership.

The PM's repeatedly said she will stand down once she gets the first stage of Brexit done.

Today's announcement buys her a bit more time to try and get something, anything, signed off.

Otherwise she'll be seen as leaving No10 without having achieved anything more on Brexit.

That could mean the utter chaos of a leadership election running in the background at the same time as trying to sort out Brexit.

A source close to Steve Barclay, the Brexit secretary, said today: "You could potentially deal with citizens’ rights and the implementation period, which are largely uncontroversial.

"It would then allow a new leader to talk to Brussels about the other aspects of the deal."

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