Kemi Badenoch has been ruled out of the Tory leadership race, leaving three contenders battling it out to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister. He received the support of just 59 Tories, while 118 backed Rishi Sunak, 92 voted for Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss was backed by 86 of her peers. There was a spoiled ballot. Ms Truss appears to have the most momentum, picking up 15 votes in yesterday’s result, while Ms Mordaunt won 10 and Mr Sunak increased his tally by just three. Who’s who in the Tory leadership contest? The departure of former equalities minister Ms Badenoch was expected given she was competing against three highly experienced cabinet MPs and was always seen as one of the outsiders of the race. Tom Tudgendhat, who was eliminated from the competition on Monday afternoon, was another underdog who progressed much further into the competition than expected. Mr Sunak looks guaranteed to reach the bottom two as things stand, with Ms Truss and Ms Mordaud hoping to pick up the votes cast by the exiting Ms Badenoch. Either Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss will be the next Prime Minister of Britain. Credit: PA In a statement, Ms Mordaunt said she was “so close to over the finish line” as she paid tribute to her disqualified rival who “electrified the leadership contest with her fresh thinking and bold policies”. One of her backers – senior Tory Tobias Ellwood – was expelled from the parliamentary party on Tuesday morning after abstaining from Monday’s confidence vote. A spokeswoman for the Tory whip’s office said: “Tobias Ellwood MP has lost the Conservative whip after failing to vote for the government in last night’s confidence vote.” The vote was initiated by Boris Johnson in an attempt to show the Labor Party that his MPs had confidence in him to remain in Downing Street until his replacement was elected. It was held after the government rejected Labour’s bid for a Commons no-confidence vote, which could have led to a general election if the Tories lost. The government won by 349 votes to 238, a majority of 111. Ellwood, a long-time critic of Prime Minister Johnson – said he was “very sorry” to lose the whip but claimed he was unable to return from a meeting with the Moldovan president due to “unprecedented disruption”. This means the Bournemouth East MP, who supported Ms Mordant, will no longer be able to vote with other MPs in the Conservative leadership election. A Sky News debate planned for this afternoon to give Tory MPs a final chance to assess the candidates ahead of Wednesday’s vote was canceled on Monday after Mr Sunack and Foreign Secretary Truss said they will not take part. The pair ripped each other to pieces during the ITV debate on Friday – as did the other candidates – and the consensus among Tories was that the blue-on-blue attacks were doing too much damage to the party. Want a quick and special update on the biggest news? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out what you need to know… It was seen as a gift to Labor as much of the debate involved the candidates indirectly criticizing their government’s record in an attempt to discredit each other. In a statement, Sky said: “Two of the three candidates currently leading the MP ballot, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, have confirmed to Sky News that they do not want to take part. “Conservative MPs are said to be concerned about the damage the debates are doing to the Conservative Party’s image, exposing divisions and divisions within the party.” The final two candidates – chosen on Wednesday’s ballot – will spend the summer wooing the Tory party’s roughly 160,000 members in a bid to win their votes. The votes will be counted at the end of August, the winner will be announced on September 5 and will take office the following day.
