"The Prime Minister has been forced to resign as party leader, but he will remain Prime Minister for a while, until the ruling party elects a new leader and Prime Minister."
At the lakeside villa, Murphy sat in a corner, listening to an analyst speak. "The chairman of the backbenchers' 1922 Committee has confirmed that the new party leader and Prime Minister will be announced on September 6. Any member wishing to run for party leader may become a candidate if nominated by twenty MPs before this Wednesday."
"Mr. Patrick wants to become a candidate. In theory, we only have three days to prepare."
"But in fact, we have been preparing for this for two months," the analyst said. "We have at least forty supporters in the House of Commons. That should be enough to get us into the second round, perhaps even the third."
As mentioned before, Britain's Parliament was a huge mud pit. They seemed to believe deeply in checks and balances—the opposition checked the ruling party, Parliament checked the Prime Minister, and even within the Conservative Party, there were groups of backbenchers who could remove and reelect the party leader.
At times, such checks and balances did ensure that more voices were heard, but most of the time, they only created chaos in which nobody could get anything done.
But at this moment, this utterly chaotic system had become Murphy's opportunity.
The Prime Minister had stepped down, and the Conservative Party was choosing a new leader. As an MP elected only this year, Patrick could use this chance to gain some political prestige.
Becoming party leader in one stroke would be extremely difficult, but even becoming a candidate would be enough for Patrick to attract plenty of political capital.
Therefore, almost at the same time Murphy had