Suella Braverman has been knocked out of the Conservative leadership race in the second round of voting.
The five remaining hopefuls – Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Tom Tugendhat – will progress to the third round on Monday.
There will be successive rounds of voting by Tory MPs until only two contenders remain.
In the first vote yesterday Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, and Nadhim Zahawi, the newly appointed chancellor, were eliminated from the contest.
They both fell short of the 30 votes needed to move to the next round, with Mr Zahawi receiving 25 and Mr Hunt 18.
The final stage is expected to be reached by the end of next week at the latest, leaving the final pair to carry out hustings over the summer and face a vote from the wider Tory party membership – with a result announced on 5 September.
The leadership contest was triggered after Boris Johnson announced his resignation last Thursday.
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His announcement followed an avalanche of ministerial resignations over his handling of the disgraced MP Chris Pincher, and accusations he had lied about what he knew of the former deputy chief whip’s inappropriate behaviour.
Mr Johnson remains in Number 10 as a caretaker prime minister while the contest is carried out.
Sky News is hosting a live TV debate with the contenders vying to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and therefore prime minister, and you could be in the virtual audience.
The debate will take place on Monday 18 July hosted by Sky News presenter Kay Burley.
If you would like to be a member of the virtual audience and be in with a chance of asking a question, please email [email protected].
