Pro-Brexit face Johnson to contest for UK Conservative party's top post

Betting odds indicate he is the leading candidate to replace May and has a 28 percent chance of being the next prime minister

Boris Johnson, the face of the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, said on Thursday he will be standing as a candidate to replace Prime Minister Theresa May as Conservative leader.

May has said she will step down before the next phase of Brexit negotiations although she has not yet put a date on her departure.

"Of course am going to go for it," Johnson told the BBC at The British Insurance Brokers' Association.

Johnson resigned from the cabinet last July in protest at May's handling of the exit negotiations.

The former foreign minister and Mayor of London, Johnson set out his