The next stage of the Tory leadership race has seen Jeremy Hunt and Nadhim Zahawi eliminated from the runners. The former health and foreign secretary and current chancellor were short of the 30 votes which were required under party rules to enter the next stage of the contest.
Mr Hunt earned just 18 MPs' support, while Mr Zahawi was knocked out with 25. Six candidates now go through to the second round of voting to be Britain's Prime Minister.
Rishi Sunak was in the lead as expected on 88 votes, followed by Penny Mordaunt on 67 MPs' support. Liz Truss had 50 - but could pull ahead of Ms Mordaunt to face Mr Sunak in the run-off if right-wingers swing behind her later in the week, reports MirrorOnline.
Kemi Badenoch earned 40 after getting Michael Gove's support, Tom Tugendhat had 37, and Suella Braverman squeezed through with 32. Further MP ballots will take place on Thursday (July 14), knocking out one candidate at a time until two go to a vote of 180,000 Tory members.
A new PM will be announced on September 5 and Mr Johnson will likely hand his resignation to the Queen on September 6. Mr Sunak was also deemed the most popular Tory leadership hopeful, according to an Ipsos poll, with 37% of 2019 Tory voters saying he would do a good job as PM.
But in an influential YouGov poll, Penny Mordaunt was deemed the favourite for Tory leader and next PM among all Conservative members. The survey of 879 members put Ms Mordaunt on 27%, with Ms Badenoch coming second place with 15%.
Mr Sunak, who is widely seen as a favourite, came a joint third with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. The YouGov poll confirms the findings from the 'Tory bible' Conservative Home on Tuesday which also put Ms Mordaunt first and Ms Badenoch second.
Ms Mordaunt told Conservative MPs at her campaign launch that she is the candidate “Labour fear the most” and warned her competitors that they are right to perceive her as a “threat to their campaign”.
Just before the result was announced Mr Sunak had 53 publicly declared MP supporters, Ms Mordaunt had 37 MPs publicly backing her and Ms Truss had 28 - including themselves. Tom Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch had 23 each while Nadhim Zahawi, Jeremy Hunt and Suella Braverman all had 15 each.
No 10 denied running an anti-Rishi Sunak smear campaign earlier today as the outgoing PM's allies singled out the former chancellor for criticism. The caretaker Prime Minister’s press secretary insisted that Mr Johnson is “staying neutral” - despite his remaining loyalists throwing their support behind Ms Truss, including in an announcement outside 10 Downing Street.
Mr Sunak faced claims from Ms Truss's supporters of using “economically damaging” policies. Ms Dorries even accused the former chancellor’s team of using “dark arts” over claims they tried to “syphon off” votes to ensure Mr Hunt cleared the threshold to enter the contest because they believed Mr Sunak would beat him in a run-off vote of party members.
The final two candidates will spend the summer battling it out to win the support of Tory party members. Mr Johnson's successor will be announced on September 5.
