THE process of the UK leaving the EU will take at least two years, with the first step a Tory leadership contest.

While David Cameron promised to ‘steady the ship’ until his successor is in place, he fired the starting gun on a divisive battle in his own party.

Former Eton and Oxford chum Boris Johnson is the clear favourite to be the next PM having been the Brexit campaign’s figurehead.

But fellow ‘Leave’ leading lights, Justice Secretary Michael Gove and former minister Liam Fox, may have different ideas.

Home Secretary Theresa May, a notably low-key ‘remain campaigner’, is a credible compromise candidate and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond feels the same.

Rossendale and Darwen MP Jake Berry said it was ‘too early’ to back anyone, while Pendle Tory colleague Andrew Stephenson, said: “I haven’t thought about it. That’s for next week when we get back to Parliament.”

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans also said he would start thinking about his new party leader next week when contenders declare their intentions.

So Mr Cameron will be at a meeting of EU leaders next week and conducting preliminary Brexit talks until his successor is elected by the Tory Party conference in October.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said some ‘market and economic volatility’ was expected but the it was well prepared.

We will still be an EU member bound by its rules and treaties until we have officially left.

Hastily-convened meetings in Brussels will discuss to deal with the fallout with an emergency summit likely next week.

At some point this year the UK PM, whoever he is, will have to trigger Article 50 of the 2009 Lisbon Treaty setting in motion the legal process of withdrawal.

That starts a long, hard road of exit negotiations between Brussels and Westminster taking at least two years.

These talks are uncharted territory.

In late summer, or early autumn 2016, negotiations will begin in Brussels on the terms of its exit and the nature of the UK’s subsequent relationship with the EU.

This would involve rescinding the European Communities Act, which gives primacy to EU law in the UK, and sifting through 80,000 pages of agreements to decide which will be repealed, amended or retained.

After two years, the UK would no longer be bound by existing EU Treaties unless both it and the other 27 states agree unanimously to extend the process of negotiations.

There are already moves to keep the UK in the single market in any exit negotiations.

The Prime Minister of the day will be under pressure to sort out a new trade deal with the EU before the country ceases to be a member.