Ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak remains in the lead following the third round of voting in the Tory leadership contest, while backbencher Tom Tugendhat (pictured) became the latest to bow out on Monday evening.
Sunak made a gain of 14 votes from the previous round of voting to secure a total of 115, meaning that he is a near certainty to make the final two barring a dramatic change.
Penny Mordaunt – who has been second in the polling throughout – held onto second place but dropped one vote to stand on 82, while Liz Truss remained third but gained seven to reach 71 and gain ground. Kemi Badenoch remained in fourth but made a gain of nine to sit on 58 votes.
Tugendhat’s 31 votes, one less than the previous round of voting, saw him finish last and drop out.
In a statement, Tugendhat – who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee – thanked his campaign team and supporters for their backing.
“I want to thank my team, colleagues and, most of all, the British people for their support,” he said.
“I have been overwhelmed by the response we have received across the country. People are ready for a clean start and our party must deliver on it and put trust back into politics.”
Tory MPs return to the polls again on Tuesday as one of the remaining four will be eliminated. A final MPs’ vote will then be held on Wednesday to decide the two that will remain.
The final two then go into a runoff where voting is extended to the wider Conservative party membership to decide Boris Johnson’s successor, who will be announced on September 5. Johnson himself will be holding his last scheduled cabinet meeting prior to the summer recess on Tuesday.
Elsewhere on Monday night, the government held a confidence vote in itself in Parliament, which it won by 349 votes to 238, therefore avoiding a general election scenario.
The confidence vote was held after Labour failed to pass a similar motion of its own, in a bid to oust Johnson from office prior to September.
The government had not been expected to lose, since it would have required many Tory MPs to side with the opposition and risk their party being removed from government in a national poll.
