RACE NARROWS DOWN TO THREE AFTER BADENOCH KNOCKED OUT OF TORY LEADERSHIP RACE

Tue 19 July 2022:

Britain‘s ex-finance minister Rishi Sunak again topped the latest vote by Conservative MPs to choose a new prime minister.

Three contenders were left in the race as another candidate was eliminated with this vote.

Sunak, the former chancellor and the frontrunner, won 118 MPs’ votes, just short of the 120 needed to guarantee a spot in the next stage of the process.

Kemi Badenoch, a former levelling up minister, came fourth on 59 votes, exiting the contest to replace Boris Johnson. Mordaunt, an international trade minister, won 92 MPs’ votes, while Truss, the foreign secretary, won 86.

A last MPs’ vote on Wednesday will decide which two candidates will go to a ballot of Conservative party members, with the final result due on 5 September. Whoever wins will become prime minister.

Truss has narrowed the gap on Mordaunt, who appeared to capture the imagination of party members in the early stages of the contest but has lost momentum in recent days, amid a barrage of hostile briefing about issues including her view on trans rights.

Mordaunt was up 10 votes from Tuesday but Truss’s team will hope to win over many of Badenoch’s supporters, potentially allowing her to move into second place in Wednesday’s ballot.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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