More Tory blood on carpet in leadership race as Sunak stays in front
More Tory blood on the carpet: Suella Braverman is latest eliminated in vote by MPs as Penny Mordaunt rides high with 83 despite Liz Truss begging right-wingers to back her – while Rishi Sunak keeps front runner status with 101
- Rishi Sunak topped the first ballot of Tory MPs yesterday with 88 votes ahead of Penny Mordaunt on 67
- The ex-chancellor added another 13 to his tally in the second round today while Ms Mordaunt was up to 83
- Foreign Secretary Liz Truss gained 14 votes to hit 64 but still significantly behind Ms Mordaunt after the vote
- Right-winger Suella Braverman was the latest eliminated after coming bottom in the second round of voting
- Trade minister Ms Mordaunt has become bookies’ favourite after putting herself in position to reach run-off
- A poll of Conservative members suggested Ms Mordaunt would defeat all her rivals in a head-to-head contest
There was more Tory blood on the carpet today as Suella Braverman became the latest hopeful knocked out of the leadership race – with Rishi Sunak topping the ballot but Penny Mordaunt riding high.
Mr Sunak received 101 votes in the second round of the contest and Ms Mordaunt 83 – adding 16 to her previous tally – after another frenzied day at Westminster that saw Foreign Secretary Liz Truss appeal for the party’s right wing to unite behind her.
Ms Truss was well behind on 64, up 14, while Kemi Badenoch received 49. Tom Tugendhat, who has portrayed himself as the moderates’ champion, lost support with 32 votes. Although he insists he has not intention of pulling out he will be favourite to exit in the next round on Monday.
Ms Mordaunt now looks in a strong position to reach the last two, who will go to a run-off ballot of Conservative members. And she has been installed as the bookies’ favourite after bombshell polling suggested that she would win a head-to-head against any of her rivals.
The focus will now shift to a series of TV debates scheduled over the weekend, where the candidates will cross swords directly for the first time.
Tory leadership race: Round two vote result
Rishi Sunak: 101 (+13)
Penny Mordaunt: 83 (+16)
Liz Truss: 64 (+14)
Kemi Badenoch: 49 (+9)
Tom Tugendhat: 32 (-5)
ELIMINATED
Suella Braverman: 27 (-5)
In a dig at frontrunner Mr Sunak earlier Ms Truss said she had been ‘loyal’ to Boris Johnson, and it was not the time for ‘business as usual economic management’.
She dodged questions on whether she was worried about the threat from Ms Mordaunt, who has become a surprise contender for the top job.
But allies have taken the gloves off, branding the trade minister ‘untested’, ‘underwhelming’ and unable to ‘master detail’.
Ms Mordaunt built on the momentum she had from the first round, where she picked up support from 67 MPs compared to Mr Sunak’s 88, while Ms Truss had 50.
Ms Truss’s team said Ms Braverman can be ‘proud’ of her campaign and urged her 27 supporters to shift their allegiance to the Foreign Secretary.
Treasury minister Simon Clarke said there was a limited pool of support Ms Truss could have plausibly won over from the supporters of the candidates eliminated in the first round.
‘This is very much on the trajectory we thought. We are attracting broad support from people across the party,’ he said.
Mr Tugendhat has joked that he feels like a ‘Prom Queen’ because he is being wooed so fervently by other hopefuls.
After the latest result Mr Sunak tweeted: ‘I am incredibly grateful for the continued support from my colleagues and the wider public.
‘I am prepared to give everything I have in service to our nation.
‘Together we can restore trust, rebuild our economy and reunite the country.’
As Ms Truss tries to claw back ground, her allies fired salvos at Ms Mordaunt this morning, with Lord Frost saying he asked for her to be sacked as his deputy and has ‘grave reservations’, while Mr Clarke swiped that the country ‘needs a leader who is tested and ready’.
One campaign source told MailOnline: ‘Just because Penny voted for Brexit doesn’t mean she can be trusted to deliver it. Her delivery record post-Brexit is incredibly underwhelming – can she be trusted to get things done?’
But Ms Truss said at her launch: ‘I certainly won’t be making any disparaging comments about my fellow candidates in the race.’
David Davis accused the Foreign Secretary of deploying the ‘dark arts’, while a source close to Ms Mordaunt told MailOnline: ‘Penny has nothing but respect for Lord Frost. He did a huge amount to assist our negotiations until he resigned from Government.
‘Penny will always fight for Brexit and always has.’
Ms Truss said at the event in Westminster that she is ‘ready to be prime minister from day one’.
‘We are at a critical moment for our country,’ she said. ‘Now is the time to be bold, we cannot have business-as-usual economic management, which has led to low growth for decades.’
To shouts of ‘hear, hear’, she said that it was time to deliver on Brexit and ‘win the fight for freedom, at home and abroad’.
In the second round Rishi Sunak received 101 votes and Penny Mordaunt 83 – adding 16 to her previous tally – after another frenzied day at Westminster that saw Foreign Secretary Liz Truss appeal for the party’s right wing to unite behind her
Officially launching her campaign this morning, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss appealed for Tories to unite behind her, saying she can be ‘trusted to deliver’ and can ‘hit the ground running’ after taking on the EU over Brexit and Vladimir Putin over Ukraine
The latest result was read out by 1922 committee chair Sir Graham Brady in the House of Commons this afternoon
Ms Mordaunt seemed jubilant about her progress this morning, taking to Twitter to hail her ‘march’
What will happen next in the Tory leadership race?
The contest to be crowned the new Tory leader – and Boris Johnson’s replacement as Prime Minister – is in full swing.
Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the Conservatives’ 1922 Committee, has revealed that the winner will be known on 5th September.
But how will the party choose, between now and then, from the long list of contenders?
Here’s how the election process will work…
Today – The field was whittled down to five after Suella Braverman came bottom and was eliminated.
Next week – Up to three further rounds of ballots among Tory MPs will be held, eliminating the lowest scorer each time.
The final vote will decide which two of the final three contenders proceed to the next stage.
21st July – MPs will head away from Westminster for their summer break, meaning this is the deadline for a final pairing to be decided in the parliamentary stage of the leadership election.
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 will be formally appointed as PM during a visit to the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
7th September – The new premier is set to be quizzed in the House of Commons in their first ever Prime Minister’s Questions.
Mr Sunak stubbornly refused to bow to demands for immediate tax cuts – offered by some of his opponents – pointing to the country’s debt mountain.
‘I think our number one economic priority is to tackle inflation and not make it worse. Inflation is the enemy, it makes everybody poorer, and if we don’t act to tackle inflation now it will cost families more in the long run, especially with mortgages,’ he said.
‘I will get taxes down in this Parliament, but I’m going to do so responsibly.
‘Because I don’t cut taxes to win elections, I win elections to cut taxes, and I’m convinced that I’m the best person to beat Keir Starmer and the Labour Party at the next election.’
Mr Sunak also denied that his massive personal wealth meant he cannot understand the struggles of ordinary people.
‘I don’t judge people by their bank accounts, I judge them by their character and I think people can judge me by my actions over the past couple of years,’ he said.
‘Whenever I have needed to step in to support people I have and furlough is a fantastic example of that.
‘But what I would say as a Conservative is I believe in hard work and aspiration and that’s my story and if I’m prime minister then I’ll be making the case for that with vigour.’
He dismissed claims of ‘dirty tricks’ being orchestrated by former chief whip Gavin Williamson on his behalf, stressing that Mel Stride has been running the parliamentary aspect of his campaign.
Asked what Sir Gavin’s role is, Mr Sunak said: ‘Like all the Members of Parliament who are on my team, they are talking to colleagues and making the case for my candidacy because they believe that I am the best person to beat Keir Starmer and the Labour Party and I’m really grateful for all their support.’
Former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch and Attorney General Suella Braverman also made it through the first round, receiving 40 and 32 votes respectively.
And former Army officer Mr Tugendhat also made the cut with 37 votes as the standard bearer of moderates.
Only one of the 358 MPs did not cast a vote.
Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi was ejected from the contest after failing to reach the minimum threshold of 30 votes, but has indicated he will not be endorsing any candidate.
A maximum of three more rounds will be needed to whittle the field down to the last pair.
At a press conference this morning, Mr Tugendhat said he ‘feels like a prom queen’ because of rival candidates were wooing him for support – but insisted he will not quit.
Asked why he was staying in the race, the MP said: ‘Where will this go? I don’t know, I can’t tell you.
‘But I can tell you that a lot of people – a lot of people – are looking at the options before them today and thinking differently about the votes they made yesterday and that’s not surprising.’
At a press conference in Westminster he added: ‘I offered to serve, and that’s what I’ll do, and it’s up to others to decide whether or not they they wish to have me.
‘That’s, I’m afraid, how democracy works. But I don’t quit.’
Ms Mordaunt’s new status is bringing intense scrutiny and she is already facing questions, including on whether she had changed her ‘woke’ views on trans rights in order to win support.
An ally of Ms Truss accused Ms Mordaunt of ‘telling lies’ over her views. ‘She is turning up at hustings claiming she never pushed trans rights when she was equalities minister when there are people in government who know that is not true,’ said the ally.
‘She is telling lies and if she gets in she will revert to type and split the party.’
Former Brexit minister Lord Frost told TalkTV he was ‘surprised she is where she is in this leadership race.’
‘I have worked with Penny… She was my deputy, notionally more than really in the Brexit talks last year,’ he said.
‘I’m sorry to say this, that I felt she did not master the detail that was necessary in the negotiations last year.
‘She wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the European Union when that was necessary. And I’m afraid she wasn’t sort of fully accountable.
Tom Tugendhat made clear he has no intention of pulling out of the Tory race after the latest round of voting
Lord Frost saying he asked for Penny Mordaunt to be sacked as his Brexit deputy and has ‘grave reservations’
A YouGov poll found the run-off margin for Penny Mordaunt against Rishi Sunak could be 67 per cent to 28 per cent, while the former Chancellor could lose 59 per cent to 25 per cent against Liz Truss
Minutes before MPs started voting in the first round of the leadership contest, YouGov research suggested Ms Mordaunt is the overwhelming favourite of activists
‘She wasn’t always visible. Sometimes I didn’t even know where she was. And I’m afraid this became such a problem that after six months, I had to ask the Prime Minister to move her on and find somebody else to support me.’
Lord Frost said a PM needed to be ‘tough’ and ‘able to lead’, adding: ‘I’m talking only about my own experience with her, but on the basis of what I saw, I’m afraid I would have grave reservations about that.’
The result for Mr Sunak was considerably short of the thumping 114 votes Mr Johnson received in the first round of the 2019 contest – when there were fewer Tory MPs.
A YouGov poll found that Ms Mordaunt is the ‘clear favourite for next Conservative leader among party members’.
When Tory members were asked to choose their preferred, Ms Mordaunt convincingly topped the list with at 27 per cent of votes.
Ms Badenoch came a distant second at 15 per cent, followed by Mr Sunak and Ms Truss on 13 per cent each.
The survey also found Ms Mordaunt – who initially appeared an outsider – would defeat any competitor in a run off.
Her margin against Mr Sunak was projected to be 67 per cent to 28 per cent, while the he could lose 59 per cent to 25 per cent against Ms Truss.
However, separate research by Savanta ComRes tonight underlined the challenges Ms Mordaunt would face with the wider electorate. Just 11 per cent of the public and 16 per cent of Conservative voters could correctly identify her when shown a photo.
Mr Sunak also faced questions after failing to land the knockout blow his team had been expecting. While the former chancellor still looked on course to make the final run-off it was no longer clear that he would do so with a big mandate from fellow MPs.
Senior Tories have warned Ms Truss that to be confident of making the final run-off she must see off her rivals on the Tory Right.
Eurosceptic MPs were last night trying to persuade Mrs Braverman to withdraw.
One source said she faced ‘humiliation’ if she tried to continue.
But her team insisted she would battle on, with campaign manager Steve Baker saying: ‘We have not yet begun to fight. People underestimate Suella at their peril.’
Mrs Badenoch also showed no signs of backing down. One source on her campaign said: ‘She is going to do it.’
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who is backing Ms Truss, last night urged fellow Brexiteers to unite behind her and warned that divisions could allow Miss Mordaunt to slip through.
Calling for a ‘unite the Right’ candidate, Sir Iain said: ‘If common sense played any part in these things, it would be over in 24 hours. But of course it doesn’t.’
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