London: Conservative lawmakers in Britain Thursday selected interior minister Theresa May and junior Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom as the two candidates to be prime minister and the choice will now go to party members.
May won 199 votes out of the party's 329 MPs, while Leadsom won 84 votes, a party official said, meaning third challenger Michael Gove, Britain's justice minister, has been rejected.
Read: Voting begins in race to replace UK Prime Minister
Some 150,000 Conservative Party members will now vote in the leadership contest, with the result announced Sept. 9.
The winner will replace Prime Minister David Cameron, who announced his resignation after Britain voted last month to leave the European Union.
Read: Meet the contenders: Candidates in line to become UK’s next Prime Minister
Britain's first female prime minister was Margaret Thatcher, a Conservative who governed from 1979 to 1990.
