Tory leadership – live: Mordaunt and Truss in last-ditch bid for place in final race

Here is another picture from the 1922 Committee, senior members of which will soon be announcing the Tory leadership ballot results:

In addition to drawing comparisons with Alice in Wonderland, the image has raised eyebrows among those pointing out that the sole female to hold a senior role on the executive is pouring the tea.

With just 20 minutes until the result in the final Westminster ballot is declared, the Financial Times reports that senior allies of Penny Mordaunt have predicted that she will be eliminated, claiming Liz Truss has “pushed us out”.

Labour’s Clive Lewis has compared Tory claims of the leadership change being a “fresh start” to “soiling your pants and deciding that you’re going to change your shirt”.

He told the BBC: “It doesn’t make an absolute difference. It’s not dealing with the actual issue, which is the Conservative Party and 13 years of failure for my constituents and many other people.

“So I think actually, this beauty contest, as soon as it’s done we can get to the business of getting them out, having a general election, and getting a Labour government.”

Tory MP Jonathan Gullis had earlier said the “quality and diversity of candidates is something that Labour could only ever dream of”, adding: “I tell you now that anyone who wins this contest is going to smash Labour at the next general election.”

Nusrat Ghani, a joint vice-chair of the 1922 Committee – which is overseeing the Tory leadership race – has shared a photo of the remaining three candidates standing with senior members of the powerful backbench group, minutes before they are whittled down to two.

As she cast her vote in the final ballot of Tory MPs, leadership hopeful Penny Mordaunt was asked if she was optimistic about her chances – to which she replied: “We won’t have long to wait.”

A supporter of Kemi Badenoch, who was eliminated in the last round, was quoted by the Press Association as saying that they expected her backers to split between Ms Truss and Rishi Sunak.

The MP claimed they were voting for Ms Truss “to have two grown-ups in the final round”.

A third Cabinet minister has pulled out of an appearance before a House of Commons committee at short notice – following in the footsteps of Priti Patel and Dominic Raab.

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng had been due to answer questions on Wednesday afternoon from MPs on the environmental audit committee on accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels and securing energy supplies.

But Mr Kwarteng wrote to the committee’s chairman, Philip Dunne, on Wednesday morning to say he could no longer attend. He gave no reason for pulling out, but offered to rearrange for a date in September, after MPs return from their summer recess.

Former chief whip Sir Gavin Williamson, a prominent supporter of Rishi Sunak, was one of the the final MPs to vote in the leadership contest.

Polls close at 3pm, with the result announced an hour later.

Here is the letter from cabinet secretary Simon Case to Tory MP David Davis, in which he confirms he has launched a leak investigation into allegations of “the apparent leaking of information designed to influence the Conservative leadership election” (see post below).

Mr Case announced the probe after receiving a complaint over the release of internal government communications relating to Penny Mordaunt’s position on the fraught issue of trans rights.

“I have been very clear in writing with the civil service that it is paramount that public resources are not used to support leadership campaigns,” he wrote, adding: “Further to that, unauthorised disclosure of government information to the media is clearly inappropriate.”

You can read more below about the allegations by Mr Davis, who revealed yesterday that he had urged Mr Case to examine whether government resources had been used to help Ms Mordaunt’s rivals, claiming she had been subjected to “brutal” smears.

An official inquiry has been launched into the alleged leak of information designed to undermine Penny Mordaunt’s campaign to become prime minister.

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has the breaking story here, which you can refresh for updates:

The Tory rebel suspended for failing to support the government in this week’s confidence motion has been allowed to return to the fold temporarily to vote in the leadership contest, writes Adam Forrest: