Tory hopeful Liz Truss is facing the fight of her political career over the next 24 hours after closing the gap on Penny Mordaunt in the race to be the next Prime Minister.
The Foreign Secretary came within six votes of overtaking Mordaunt on Tuesday afternoon, taking 86 votes to the Portsmouth MP's 92 votes in a strong fightback.
As expected former Chancellor Rishi Sunak maintained and increased his lead to 118 votes, up three from Monday.
Kemi Badenoch is eliminated from the contest having gained only one extra supporter, reaching 59 in the fourth round of voting
READ MORE: Sunak would struggle to win vote of Tory members
In Monday night's vote Sunak received 115 votes, Mordaunt 82 votes and Truss 71 votes.
The small increase in Sunak's numbers was read by some as his camp lending votes to Mordaunt to keep Truss out of the final two facing the members though this was denied by the former chancellor's camp.
Truss and Mordaunt now look set to fight to death over the Badenoch votes to come out in the final two candidates who will be put before the Conservative membership.
A final round of voting by MPs is scheduled for Wednesday with the names of the final two candidates left standing being revealed at 4pm.
This is a breaking news story - we’ll bring you the very latest updates, pictures and video as it happens.
Follow the politics team on Twitter @Record_Politics and the official Daily Record account @Daily_Record - real news in real time.
We’re also on Facebook - your must-see news, features, videos and pictures throughout the day from the Daily Record, Sunday Mail and Record Online
Get all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion and video on the stories that matter to you
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.
READ NEXT:
