Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, the third-ranking House Republican, formally nominates McCarthy for speaker.

“Under Kevin McCarthy’s leadership, House Republicans drafted a bold vision to put our nation back on track,” Stefanik says in a floor speech.

“No one in this party has worked harder for this Republican majority than Kevin McCarthy,” Stefanik says.

Stefanik has risen rapidly in the House Republican caucus. She began as a sceptic of former President Donald Trump, but transformed into one of his staunchest defenders during his presidency and through two impeachments.

That loyalty helped her oust former Representative Liz Cheney from Republican leadership, after the Wyoming lawmaker spoke out against Trump’s election conspiracy theories and the January 6 riot.

The election of the Speaker of the House is set to begin. Kevin McCarthy has just been nominated, to a standing ovation from his supporters.

Representative Elise Stefanik has said that his nomination comes at a time of "weakness at home and abroad", and in which Americans want "a new direction".

During voting, each member's name will be read aloud, and that person will then have to name the person that they support for the position of speaker.

Traditionally, the process takes an hour or so.

If no majority is secured, there could be multiple ballots.

Nothing else can happen until this process is finished.

Image source, EVN

The roll call has finished and all 434 members of congress who can vote are in attendance.

This means Republican Kevin McCarthy would need to secure 218 votes - there are 222 Republicans present.

One congressman, Donald McEachin from Virginia, died in November after being re-elected.

Members of Congress have entered the Capitol to convene today on the first day of the 118th Congress.

As he entered, Kevin McCarthy, who hopes to become speaker, responded to one reporter by saying that he's not going anywhere.

Speaking to reporters, McCarthy said he faced resistance from lawmakers who hoped that he could "provide certain members with certain positions" if he were to win.

"Well, that is not about America. And I will always fight to put the American people first, not a few individuals who want something for themselves," he said.

"So, we may have a battle on the floor."

Others such as Hakeem Jeffries and Andy Biggs were surrounded by press, asking questions in anticipation of the vote for a new Speaker of the House.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

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As the 118th cohort of US House of Representatives gather at the Capitol to elect their leaders, a roll call is being held for the next few minutes.

This will show us how many members of the 435 are there to vote, which will in turn indicate how many votes Kevin McCarthy will need to be elected speaker.

Stick with us for updates once the political wrangling begins at 12:20 eastern time (17:20 GMT).

The House has been gavelled in, starting today's session and bringing the legislative body to order.

House chaplain Margaret Kibben has also delivered the opening prayer, and then the house clerk led the Pledge of Allegiance.

The names of the representatives will now being called to determine quorum, one by one.

Politicians are filing into the chamber, to begin the meeting of the 118th session of the US Congress.

A prayer has just read by the chaplain and the pledge of allegiance recited, as Congress members prepare to elect their leaders.

Roderick MaCleod
BBC News, Washington

There are plenty of new lawmakers here today (75 in the House and seven in the Senate), and despite a light rain outside many are soaking it all in as they arrive early to pose for photos outside the Capitol.

First time congresswoman-elect, 39-year-old Delia Ramirez, from Illinois, says she has about 150 family and friends who travelled to DC from places such as Chicago and as far away as Guatemala.

“I am proud to say I am the first Latina ever elected in the Midwest, and the first ever Guatemalan elected to congress, so having family here from Guatemala is very important," she told the BBC.

"They all made it possible to go to Congress, so for them it’s not that I’m going to Congress, it’s all of us going," she added.

There's just a few minutes to go before the proceedings begin at the US Capitol.

At around 12:00 local time (17:00 GMT), the House will be "gavelled in" and called to order by clerk Cheryl Johnson.

That will then be followed by a prayer and pledge of allegiance.

After that, the speaker election will be ordered by the clerk - and we'll be underway.

The speaker election is expected to begin with nominating speeches. In Kevin McCarthy's case, it remains unclear who will give the speech, although tradition would make it Republican Caucus chairman Elise Stefanik.

The voting will then take place, followed by remarks by the speaker-elect.

It is possible that this process will take multiple rounds of voting - so exact timings are unclear at this point.

Stay with us for more updates - and watch live at the top of this page.

Image source, Getty Images

The slim majority the Republicans hold in the House is why the speaker vote is unlikely to be straightforward.

Democrats are unlikely to vote for McCarthy, and there are divisions within the Republican Party between his supporters and the party’s right flank, many of whom are fans of former President Donald Trump.

An overwhelming majority of Republicans want to elect McCarthy as speaker, but 14 have put the outcome in serious doubt.

At least five members - dubbed the "Never Kevins" - have repeatedly promised to vote against McCarthy: they are representatives Andy Biggs, Bob Good, Matt Gaetz, Matt Rosendale and Ralph Norman.

Good and Gaetz have both said they believe McCarthy represents the mainstream and the establishment. Gaetz told the Daily Caller website last week: "I think he's just a shill of the establishment… I think that Kevin McCarthy is little more than a vessel through which lobbyists and special interests operate."

He has made concessions to his critics in order to lock down the 218 votes needed, but nine other Republicans released a letter on Sunday indicating McCarthy’s proposed changes were not enough to garner their votes: representatives Scott Perry, Chip Roy, Paul Gosar, Dan Bishop, Andy Harris, Andrew Clyde, and representatives-elect Andy Ogles, Anna Paulina Luna, and Eli Crane.

Even as uncertainty over his future role in the US House of Representatives continues to swirl, Kevin McCarthy has reportedly begun moving into the the Speaker of the House's office, which some DC insiders refer to as the "speaker's suite".

On Twitter, NBC News producer and reporter Haley Talbot posted a video of boxes being moved into the office.

Talbot noted that if he fails to secure the votes necessary to get the Speaker's position, "he will have to move all his stuff back out".

Image source, Getty Images

Kevin McCarthy is not the only politician who is being talked about today: soon-to-be congressman George Santos is also in the spotlight.

Fraudulent claims of college degrees, a non-existent real estate portfolio and confusion about whether he’s Jewish or not are just a few of the growing list of controversies that Santos is facing as the new US Congress is sworn in.

Ahead of his election in the November midterms, the 34-year-old Republican referred to himself as “the full embodiment of the American dream”: an openly gay child of Brazilian immigrants who rose to the upper echelons of Wall Street before entering the world of politics.

Santos’s narrative is now in tatters, with the embattled soon-to-be New York representative admitting that large portions of it were entirely made up.

He now faces calls to resign amid federal and local investigations - creating another headache for Kevin McCarthy, who has been asked to encourage him to step down. When he arrived at Capitol Hill on Tuesday, he did not answer questions from reporters.

Read more about George Santos and his mounting troubles here.

Image source, Reuters

Republicans started the day with a closed-door meeting ahead of today's House Speaker vote.

In a speech - which reportedly received a standing ovation - McCarthy said that he is "not going to go away", CNN reported.

The meeting became tense, with a defiant Kevin McCarthy telling opponents that "he's earned this job", according to both CNN and the Washington Post.

Additionally, McCarthy is said to have warned that he will no longer negotiate or offer concessions - he had previously offered concessions to more conservative Republicans who oppose his bid to become speaker.

One opponent, Colorado's Lauren Boebert, reportedly yelled an expletive at McCarthy during the remarks.

The Washington Post also reported that one of McCarthy's allies, Alabama's Mike Rogers, said that members who oppose McCarthy should lose their committee assignments.

It's clear that McCarthy is prepared to fight today - no matter how long it takes.

Gary O'Donoghue
Washington Correspondent

You can count the Republican majority in the new House of Representatives on the fingers of one hand - and therein lies Kevin McCarthy's big problem.

That slim grasp on power gives a small number of his own members huge sway over everything, including his long-desired wish to be speaker.

And for that small group who oppose him - many of them members of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus - McCarthy, despite his courting of Donald Trump, represents everything that is wrong with the conventional Republican party.

It's been more than 100 years since a vote for speaker has gone to more than one ballot on the floor.

And if McCarthy doesn't get to a majority of those voting on the first or second ballot, there would be huge pressure on him to drop out, too damaged to continue.

That could open the door for number two in the House Republican leadership, Steve Scalise - though some moderate Republicans will baulk at being pushed around by a handful of discontents on the right.

That could see other names emerge such as Jim Jordan from Ohio, a favourite on the right - but he is someone who would struggle to get the support of a majority.

One intriguing possibility, albeit remote, is that the House decides to choose a speaker who is not a member. The constitution is silent on whether the speaker has to be a member of the House.

It's going to be a messy day, and a far from ideal start to the new Congress for Republicans - whatever happens.

The House and Senate - which collectively make up the US Congress - will meet today at 12:00 eastern time (17:00 GMT). Before members take their oaths of office and can begin work, the House must elect a new speaker.

Image source, Getty Images

Let’s take a quick look at the career of the man in position to take over the role of Speaker of the House.

Kevin McCarthy was born in Bakersfield, California, and was first elected to Congress in 2007 as a Republican representing California, having risen from the state party’s ranks.

His seat has changed due to redistricting over the years, but the areas he has represented have consistently been rural districts in the east of California.

McCarthy has held internal leadership positions since early in his congressional career, becoming House Majority Whip in 2011 and then House Leader three years later. (If those terms are confusing to you - we have a post coming that explain them soon.)

This is not his first run at becoming speaker - McCarthy pulled out of the 2015 race after struggling to secure enough votes from colleagues.

Since 2018, as minority leader under Donald Trump, McCarthy has been generally considered part of the more moderate wing of the Republican party. Many colleagues who are more conservative opposed him taking the minority leader role under Trump - and also opposed his failed 2015 bid to become speaker. It appears many will oppose him again today.

Although the Republican Party secured control of the House of Representatives from the Democrats in November’s mid-term elections, it wasn't the ‘red wave' that so many had been expecting.

Republicans won 222 of 435 seats, just over the 218 needed to give them a majority.

It is that same benchmark that Kevin McCarthy needs to hit today if he is to become speaker.

There are 82 new members of the House who will be sworn in for the first time today — 47 Republicans and 36 Democrats.

It is a different picture on the other side on the US Capitol in the Senate. There, the Democrats have 51 seats while the Republicans have 49.

Image source, Getty Images

The 118th US Congress is set to be sworn in on Tuesday. But first, a new Speaker of the House of Representatives must be chosen. Republican Kevin McCarthy is struggling to secure enough votes to ensure that he becomes speaker.

The Californian congressman needs to win a majority - at least 218 votes - in the House to secure the position, which is one of the most important jobs in US politics.

McCarthy is considered part of the more moderate wing of the party, and several more conservative Republicans have refused to support him, even after he made numerous last-minute concessions to them.

McCarthy has also recently faced criticism from both sides of the political spectrum for his silence over George Santos, a newly elected representative who has admitted to making up large portions of his life story.

The vote begins in just under two hours - we'll be bringing you live updates. Stay with us.