Rishi Sunak has declared he is standing to be the next Conservative leader and Prime Minister.

The former chancellor's resignation with ex-health secretary Sajid Javid triggered the chain of dozens of resignations from the Government that forced Boris Johnson to finally announce he would quit.

Sunak is the first of the big former Cabinet names to announce he is standing to be leader.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson's visits to Glasgow from COP26 to the pandemic

In his first leadership campaign video using the slogan 'Ready for Rishi', he tells the story of his grandmother who came to Britain decades ago.

And how his grandfather, and their children including Sunak's mother, followed a year later.

He said: “That’s where my story began. Family means everything to me."

Sunak is one of the richest politicians in the UK from his career in banking, and is married to fashion designer Akshata Murthy, a multi-millionaire, whose family owns a huge Indian software firm.

She recently gave up her non-domiciled tax status after it was revealed.

Sunak and Murthy have two daughters.

He said it was “Britain, our country that gave them, and millions like them, the chance of a better future".

The former chancellor said he was in politics “to give everyone the same opportunities".

He said: “I want to lead this country in the right direction."

READ MORE: Ex-Glasgow Tory MSPs tell Boris Johnson 'to leave office now'

Sunak added: “I ran the toughest department in Government during the toughest times when we faced the nightmare of Covid.”

Sunak rolled out the furlough scheme, paying 80% of wages for staff whose firms had to shut down during lockdown.

He also spent billions on the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, when hospitality was allowed to reopen after the first lockdown.

Sunak said his values were “patriotism, fairness and hard work".

Other big names are expected to announce their plans to contest the Tory leadership over the coming days.

So far only Suella Braverman, the attorney general, and Tom Tugendhat, a backbencher who is chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, have said they will be standing.

Other who are understood to be considering a bid include Javid, foreign secretary Liz Truss, defence secretary Ben Wallace, and Penny Mordaunt, paymaster general.

An announcement is expected on Monday on the timetable and rules for the leadership contest.

As it stands MPs need the backing of at least eight other MPs to stand.

They would then go into a series of contests with the Conservative Parliamentary group voting in rounds, eliminating those with least support until only two candidates remain.

Those two would be put forward for the party membership to decide who becomes the next leader.