2 finalists in UK leadership race make pitch to Tory members

LONDON (AP) — The two finalists in the race to lead Britain’s governing Conservative Party — and to become the country’s new prime minister — are making their first formal pitches to party members.

Former British foreign secretary and ex-London mayor Boris Johnson, the runaway favorite, and Jeremy Hunt, the current foreign secretary, faced off Saturday at a Conservative conference in central England’s city Birmingham.

Johnson opened his address with a focus on Britain’s stalled exit from the European Union. He told the audience: “We need to get Brexit done.”

Saturday’s “hustings” is the first of more than a dozen such party events set to take place across Britain in coming days.

A by-mail vote of about 160,000 party members across Britain will pick the winner. The result is expected the week of July 22.