Conservative MPs will on Wednesday select the two candidates to succeed Boris Johnson who will go forward to a ballot of the entire party membership over the next six weeks. A fourth round of voting among MPs on Tuesday saw former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch eliminated, leaving Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss to compete for the final two places.
Mr Sunak remained in front with 118 votes, an increase of three since Monday, which left him just one vote short of the 119 needed to secure a place on the final ballot. Ms Mordaunt saw her vote rise by 10 to 92, leaving her six votes ahead of Ms Truss, who remained in third place with 86.
Ms Truss saw her vote increase by 15 since Monday while Ms Badenoch, with whom she was competing to be the standard-bearer of the right of the party, added just one vote to bring her total to 59.
“This is a great achievement and demonstrates the support for her honest politics and vision of change for the country and the Conservative party,” a spokesman for Ms Badenoch said.
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Ms Badenoch has accused Ms Mordaunt of lying about her policy on trans rights but former business secretary Andrea Leadsom, who is backing Ms Mordaunt, said she was confident of winning over some of Ms Badenoch’s supporters.
“Penny has gained support today and that’s brilliant because it’s from all parts of the party and we are incredibly optimistic about tomorrow. Penny is fighting a positive, clean campaign. It’s a campaign that will reunite the party and win the next election,” she told Sky News.
“Penny and Kemi have worked together over the years. Leadership hustings are a brutal time, I’ve been through this myself. The reality is Penny and Kemi have a strong relationship and it’s simply not true all MPs vote as a bloc.”
Ms Mordaunt suffered a setback on Tuesday when one of her supporters, Tobias Ellwood, lost the Conservative whip because he was in Moldova instead of at Westminster on Monday taking part in a confidence vote in the government. This means that Mr Ellwood cannot vote in the leadership election and the threshold for reaching the final ballot has dropped from 120 votes to 119.
Desmond Swayne , who backed attorney general Suella Braverman before moving behind Ms Badenoch, said he would vote for Mr Sunak.
“We have big challenges ahead of us as a nation and they require a leader who can make the tough choices to rebuild our economy. I’ve served our party for two decades under several different leaders and prime ministers – that experience has shown me that Rishi Sunak is the right way forward for our country,” he said.
Ballot papers will go out to Conservative party members in early August and the next party leader will be announced on September 5th. Mr Johnson, who will have his last prime minister’s questions in parliament on Wednesday, chaired his final cabinet meeting on Tuesday where ministers presented him with first editions of Winston Churchill’s books about the second World War.
