And then there were THREE: Kemi Badenoch is knocked out of Tory leader race and surging Liz Truss closes gap with second-placed Penny Mordaunt to six votes – while Rishi Sunak extends his advantage
- Conservative MPs have been voting to whittle down the number of leader hopefuls from four to three today
- Kemi Badenoch is the latest for the chop as Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt wrestle to secure second place
- Rishi Sunak is looking guaranteed to make the run-off of party members after racking up most endorsements
- Poll has suggested that Ms Truss would emerge victorious if she does get through to the run-off of members
- Tory ‘dirty tricks’ row after Tobias Ellwood lost the whip for failing to vote in last night’s confidence vote
The bitter race to succeed Boris Johnson is down to the final three today after Kemi Badenoch was dramatically knocked out in the latest vote by MPs.
Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt look to be in a straight fight to feature in the run off after staving off the challenge from Ms Badenoch – and will now be scrambling to pick up her 59 supporters.
With Ms Truss adding 15 to her tally to reach 86, including key Tugendhat backers such as Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, she is only six short of Ms Mordaunt who gained 10.
Tory leadership election: Round Four
Rishi Sunak: 118 (+3)
Penny Mordaunt: 92 (+10)
Liz Truss: 86 (+15)
Eliminated
Kemi Badenoch: 59 (+1)
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak has effectively guaranteed his spot in the last two by racking up 118 – although he is still not quite over the threshold of a third of the 357 Tory MPs.
The dramatic developments come with the race deeply mired in dirty tricks allegations, after Mr Johnson was accused of trying to influence the contest.
Defence committee chair Tobias Ellwood has been stripped of the party whip after travelling to Moldova to meet its president in what ministers say was an unsanctioned trip.
The punishment means that the Bournemouth East MP, a supporter of Ms Mordaunt, could not vote in today’s fourth round.
It sparked suggestions that Mr Johnson was trying to help his preferred successor, Ms Truss take on Mr Sunak in the final run-off.
The Foreign Secretary was handed a boost by a new YouGov poll this afternoon which suggested that she would win the leadership if she makes the final two and it goes to a vote of members.
YouGov research suggested that Ms Mordaunt has fallen back after sparking an initial wave of enthusiasm among activists. Ms Truss now has a 48 per cent to 42 per cent advantage when put up against the trade minister.
And either Ms Truss or Ms Mordaunt would start a run-off campaign from a good position, as the survey indicated they would comfortably defeat the former Chancellor.
Ms Badenoch also scored very strongly in the poll, and although members will not now have the option of backing her for leader her endorsement could be critical to the outcome.
A Sunak campaign spokeswoman said: ‘Rishi has continued to progress today because he is the candidate with the clearest plan to restore trust, rebuild the economy, reunite the country and because he is best placed to beat Labour at the next election.
‘Every poll shows only Rishi can beat Starmer, and is the candidate the public think would make the best PM.’
Ms Mordaunt immediately heaped praise on Ms Badenoch’s ‘electric’ showing in the contest.
‘This afternoon colleagues once again put their trust in me and I cannot thank them enough. We are so nearly across the finish line. I am raring to go and excited to put my case to members across the country and win,’ she said.
‘I want to pay tribute to my friend Kemi Badenoch who electrified the leadership contest with her fresh thinking and bold policies.’
In other developments today:
- Some Truss supporters are worried that Mr Sunak will ‘lend’ backers to Ms Mordaunt to knock the foreign secretary out and allow him to face the international trade minister in the final two;
- The BBC has announced a TV debate will be held between the final two candidates at 9pm on Monday;
- Tom Tugendhat arrived to vote with a pack of his supporters suggesting they would all be lining up behind the same candidate.
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are still in the leadership battle as it enters the final stages before going to a ballot of Tory members
Penny Mordaunt added to her tally, easing fears that her bid had stalled after a very strong start
Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt look to be in a straight fight to feature in the run off after staving off the challenge from Ms Badenoch – and will now be scrambling to pick up her 59 supporters
Either Ms Truss or Ms Mordaunt would start a run-off campaign from a good position, as the survey indicated they would comfortably defeat the former Chancellor
YouGov research suggested that the trade minister has fallen back after sparking an initial wave of enthusiasm among activists. The Foreign Secretary now has a 48 per cent to 42 per cent advantage when put up against Ms Mordaunt
Kemi Badenoch could be a key powerbroker in the rest of the Tory leadership contest after a strong campaign
HOW THE TORY LEADERSHIP RACE WILL PLAY OUT
Today – Kemi Badenoch was knocked out after a fourth ballot, with just three candidates left.
Wednesday: Assuming no-one drops out, a fifth ballot will decide the final pair, ending the parliamentary phase of the contest.
21st July – MPs will head away from Westminster for their summer break.
Late July and August – CCHQ will assume responsibility for leadership election and will send out ballot papers to around 200,000 Conservative Party members. The Tory grassroots will be asked to decide between the final two candidates, with hustings events to be held across the UK.
5th September – The result of the membership ballot is announced, with the candidate receiving more than 50 per cent of the vote being declared the new Tory leader and Boris Johnson’s replacement as Prime Minister.
6th September – The new Tory leader is likely to be formally appointed as PM during a visit to the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
7th September – The new PM is set to be quizzed in the House of Commons in their first ever Prime Minister’s Questions.
Ms Trevelyan endorsed Ms Truss saying she ‘will bring strong Tory economy policy, understanding of our responsibilities on the world stage and strength to deal with the tough choices’.
Ed Argar, a supporter of the Foreign Secretary, said she was seeing ‘steady momentum’ throughout the leadership contest ‘without a falter’.
‘She is the one who is making the running,’ he added.
Mr Argar dismissed the prospect of Mr Sunak’s team attempting to block Ms Truss from the final pairing, in a preference for a run-off against Ms Mordaunt.
Chris Skidmore, a supporter of Mr Sunak, said the ex-chancellor was ‘so close to being across the line’ that the focus was now on the battle for second place.
‘He’s two votes away, 120 votes is the threshold,’ he told Sky News.
‘That looks incredibly realisable, given Kemi’s team – I think some of those will come across.’
But, when it came to predicting which way Ms Badenoch’s votes would now go, Mr Skidmore admitted ‘you might as well look at the tea leaves’.
‘I wouldn’t put it past some of the other teams to be doing a bit of horsetrading,’ he added.
‘It might be you have some people on Team Truss versus some people on Team Mordaunt who are trading their votes around.’
He also suggested that Mr Sunak would rather face Ms Mordant than Ms Truss in the final pairing.
‘I think Rishi versus Liz is going to be the most feared contest in terms of that will be a battle for ideas rather than a battle of personalities,’ Mr Skidmore said.
Lee Anderson, a supporter of Ms Badenoch, suggested that some MPs ‘got cold feet’ and ‘weren’t quite brave enough’ to back her.
‘A couple of years’ time, five years’ time, 10 years’ time, Kemi will be Prime Minister of this country, absolutely no doubt about that,’ he said.
Former Cabinet minister Dame Andrea Leadsom, who is Ms Mordaunt’s campaign manager, said she was ‘incredibly optimistic’ about tomorrow’s final round of voting.
She also suggested Ms Badenoch’s supporters could now back Ms Mordaunt, despite the two candidates having clashed during the contest.
‘Very often people say things in the heat of the moment but the reality is Penny and Kemi have a strong relationship,’ she told Sky News.
‘And it’s simply not true that all MPs vote as a bloc – Kemi doesn’t command the bloc vote.’
Ms Truss has been wooing supporters of former soldier Tom Tugendhat, who came bottom and was eliminated last night, by vowing to boost defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030.
‘We live in an increasingly dangerous world where the threat level is higher than a decade ago, and we need a stronger deterrent to face down those threats and ensure Britain leads on the global stage,’ she said.
Long-term PM critic finally crosses the line
Of all of Boris Johnson’s critics within the Conservative Party , Tobias Ellwood is one of the least subtle.
The 55-year-old former British Army officer has made no secret of his distain for the leader who booted him out of his ministerial post upon taking office.
He was one of the first MPs to announce he had submitted a letter of no confidence in Mr Johnson’s leadership.
And he has consistently called on the PM to resign in recent months.
The Bournemouth East MP has also been accused of helping, behind the scenes, to lead the rebellion that forced the PM to announce his resignation.
Mr Ellwood is a former Army captain who made headlines in 2017 when he went to the aid of PC Keith Palmer who had been fatally stabbed by terrorist Khalid Masood outside the Palace of Westminster.
He was veterans minister at the Ministry of Defence under Theresa May but returned to the backbenches to lead the defence committee after Mr Johnson took office.
He had been considered a possible candidate for the leadership after Mr Johnson announced he was quitting. But he blotted his copybook last month when he said that it was a ‘no brainer’ to rethink leaving the EU’s single market.
In a BBC interview he argued the country should opt for a softer Brexit, even if it means accepting the free movement of people.
He also criticised the Government’s plan to send failed migrants to Rwanda and called for a tougher response towards China and Russia.
‘Ultimately that requires more resources. My number one priority is keeping this country safe and people can trust me to do that.’
But her rivals were also courting Mr Tugendhat, with Ms Mordaunt tweeting that she had ‘admired’ him for years and Ms Badenoch saying he would be an ‘asset’ to any future Conservative government.
Mr Sunak’s team were jubilant last night as he increased his score from 101 to 115.
But he failed to hit the 120 mark today that guarantees a place in the final two.
Ms Mordaunt’s campaign was hit by the loss of Mr Ellwood’s vote this morning.
The move by the PM is likely to be seen as driven purely by his desire to get back at a backbencher who has made little secret of his loathing for him.
Mr Ellwood was one of the first Tory MPs to demand he resign over the Partygate scandal.
The former soldier is chairman of the Defence Committee and was in Moldova.
In a statement Mr Ellwood said he is ‘very sorry’ to lose the Tory whip but argued he was unable to return from a meeting with the country’s president in Chisinau due to ‘unprecedented disruption’.
But a Tory source said he had been warned before leaving that he would not be paired, adding: ‘Other Conservative MPs cancelled foreign trips, left poorly relatives and one MP’s mother died on the morning of the vote and still attended and voted.’
The 55-year-old father of two was one of 12 Tories who abstained in the confidence vote last night, which Mr Johnson comfortably won 349 to 238, thanks to his huge majority.
This morning he appeared to indicate his support for Penny Mordaunt in the Tory leadership race, retweeting her campaign video.
Stripping him of the whip means he can no longer vote, while former whip Chris Pincher, who had the whip suspended over allegations of groping, is still able to.
Mr Johnson’s team is believed to be tacitly backing rival Liz Truss, with several ministers coming out in support including Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
But Culture Secretary Ms Dorries said it was ‘frankly utterly ridiculous’ to suggest this was the PM’s motive.
Ministers and backbenchers with valid reasons to be away from Parliament when there are votes are usually paired with people in similar positions in opposition parties, in order to keep the balance of the voting groups fair.
The process is discretionary and sometimes does not apply for major votes like a confidence vote.
It is understood the other 11 absentees were paired.
Mr Ellwood is a Remainer and long-term critic of the PM who has long called for him to be replaced as Tory leader, though he did not run in the leadership contest to replace Mr Johnson.
Mr Ellwood is a former Army captain who made headlines in 2017 when he went to the aid of PC Keith Palmer who had been fatally stabbed by terrorist Khalid Masood outside the Palace of Westminster.
He was veterans minister at the Ministry of Defence under Theresa May but returned to the backbenches to lead the defence committee after Mr Johnson took office.
Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said: ‘It is telling that Boris Johnson acted swiftly to punish Tobias Ellwood this time, but dragged his feet for days when it came to suspending the whip from his loyal supporter Chris Pincher.
‘This petty act shows there is no room in the Conservatives any more for those who refuse to prop up Johnson.
‘The Conservative leadership candidates should condemn this move and make clear they will restore the whip to Tobias Ellwood.
‘Anything less would show they are all just as bad as Johnson and will continue his failed record on sleaze, the NHS and cost of living.’
Mr Sunak has been trying to beef up his support on the Tory right today, promising harsher sentences for criminals who refuse to attend court for their sentencing hearings and a crackdown on grooming gangs.
He has also been boosted by an endorsement from former leader Lord Hague, who praised him as an ‘exceptional individual’ who can be trusted at ‘one of the hardest times to be prime minister in our lifetimes: certainly since 1979, possibly since 1945’.
However, one recently-departed former Cabinet minister told MailOnline they were concerned about a ‘Jeremy Corbyn situation’ where the candidate overwhelmingly backed by MPs – likely to be Mr Sunak – was not elected by party members.
‘Jeremy Hunt performed well in the hustings, better than Boris Johnson. But he didn’t win,’ the MP said. ‘It is a very difficult position to be in. We don’t know which way it is going to pan out.’
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