One of the five candidates vying to be Britain’s next Prime Minister will be eliminated from the race later today.
Foreign Affairs Committee chair Tom Tugendhat is the favourite to be knocked out when Tory MPs vote in the latest round of the contest, as it enters the final stage later this week.
The result will be announced at 8pm this evening, with international trade minister Penny Mordaunt and former chancellor Rishi Sunak likely to benefit if Tugendhat doesn’t make it.
Today’s vote follows a bad tempered debate last night, with Sunak being targeted by the other contenders, including foreign secretary Liz Truss and former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch.
The final two contenders will be known by Wednesday evening, after further votes whittle down the field tomorrow and Wednesday, before 180,000 or so Tory members select the UK’s next leader following a series of hustings over the summer.
The five candidates exchanged barbs in the latest televised debate, staged by ITV, as the battle became ever more bitter.
Sunak, who topped both the first two ballots, was seen to have won the debate by ordinary voters polled by Opinium, but Badenoch – who came last in that poll – was declared the winner by Tory members polled by Conservative Home.
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Truss and Badenoch will be hoping to pick up votes from Attorney General Suella Braverman, who endorsed the former after being eliminated in the last round.
Despite having voted Remain in the 2016 referendum, the Foreign Secretary is backed by many Brexiteers and those on the right of the Tory party.
Sunak is seen as the front-runner to make the final two, with Mordaunt likely to square off with either Badenoch or Truss to face the former Chancellor.
But polls suggest he loses against any of his four rivals in a vote among Tory members – making Mordaunt the bookmakers’ favourite.
Last night’s debate saw Truss attacking Sunak for putting up taxes to their highest level in 70 years, prompting the former Chancellor to accuse her of backing ‘something-for-nothing economics’ and ‘socialism’.
He later asked her whether she regretted being a Remainer or a Lib Dem more.
Sunak also clashed with Mordaunt, accusing her of dangerous economics that would go further than former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s plans.
There was more bad blood also between Mordaunt and Badenoch over the trade minister’s views on identity politics and trans issues.
Badenoch, hitting back at Tugendhat for serving in Boris Johnson’s government, pointed out that the army veteran had never ‘been out there on the front line making the case’.
Tugendhat replied that he had been on the front line in Afghanistan and Iraq.
For all the division, there was one moment of unity, when none of the candidates said they would be prepared to give a cabinet seat Mr Johnson.
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