Britain's Fox says party leadership should not be rushed despite Johnson's lead

The Conservative Party leadership contest should not be rushed even though Boris Johnson holds a big lead among party lawmakers, British Trade Minister Liam Fox said on Tuesday. Johnson, a former foreign minister and ex-London mayor, won the support of 114 Conservative lawmakers in the first round of the leadership contest, far ahead of his nearest rival.

A second round of voting by lawmakers to whittle down the number of contenders to replace Theresa May is due later on Tuesday. "We have a process set out where the members of parliament will determine two candidates that go to the whole of our party membership," Fox said during a visit to Turkey. "So that was the (process) set out and it should be followed. I think that especially in the current climate, if our party members and our party volunteers felt that they were being cut out of the process and denied a voice, I don't see them taking that too well," he said.