Suella Braverman has been knocked out of the Tory leadership race in the second round of voting, as Rishi Sunak topped the ballot with more than 100 backers.
Penny Mordaunt increased her lead over Liz Truss, with 83 votes to the foreign secretary’s 64 – while Tom Tugendhat vowed to fight on despite receiving the backing of just 32 Conservative MPs.
Lord Frost earlier launched a brutal attack on Ms Mordaunt after polling placed her as the favourite among the Tory faithful to succeed Boris Johnson, with the former Brexit minister claiming he had asked for her to be removed as his deputy during talks with the EU.
Alleging that the former defence secretary “did not master the detail that was necessary” during negotiations and “wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the EU” when the situation merited it, the Conservative peer said he was now “gravely concerned”.
Ms Truss will now be hoping to hoover up Ms Braverman’s support – with the results likely to amplify calls from her allies who earlier urged those supporting Kemi Badenoch to “join Liz” instead.
Truss ‘faces narrow path’ to final two, as Tory MPs ‘want a fresh face’
Here is some reaction from journalists to the results, and what they could mean for the next stages of the race.
Liz Truss faces a narrow path to make it into the last two, The Times’ political editor believes.
Tom Newton-Dunn of TalkTV suggests that the dispersion of the results in today’s vote indicates that “the majority of MPs still want a fresh face”.
And Stephen Bush of the Financial Times argues that “the only candidates you can say had an unalloyed good result” are Kemi Badenoch and Penny Mordaunt.
Penny Mordaunt slightly increases lead over Liz Truss and picks up most new votes
The margin between Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss has seen a slight increase – with the foreign secretary coming 19 votes behind her rival in the second round.
Ms Truss will be hoping to hoover up votes belonging to newly-eliminated Suella Braverman as she seeks to close the gap – which has grown from 67-50 in the first round, to 83-64 in the second.
Picking up 16 new votes, Ms Mordaunt increased her vote share in the second round by more than any other candidate:
Watch: Suella Braverman eliminated from race
Here is the moment that Suella Braverman was knocked out of the race:
Tugendhat vows to fight on after receiving just 32 votes
Tom Tugendhat has insisted that his “campaign for a clean start” continues – despite him receiving just 32 votes in the second round of the leadership race.
“We need trust back in our politics. I will be putting my vision for Britain forward to the public at the TV debates next week,” the foreign affairs committee chair said.
Liz Truss campaign claims she is attracting support from across Tory Party
Liz Truss’s leadership election team claimed she is attracting a wide range of support from across the Tory party, as they indicted Suella Braverman’s supporters should now back the foreign secretary.
“Suella Braverman ran a campaign that she can rightly be proud of,” a spokeswoman for Ms Truss said.
“As Liz set out in her speech now is the time for MPs to unite behind the candidate who will cut taxes, deliver the real economic change we need, continue to deliver the benefits of Brexit and ensure Putin loses in Ukraine.
“Liz Truss has the experience to deliver from day one, grow our economy and support working families and then beat Labour.”
Sunak receives more than 100 votes in second round of voting
Our deputy political correspondent Rob Merrick has this breaking report on the results of the second Tory leadership vote:
Tory leadership: Penny Mordaunt surge speeds up as Rishi Sunak wins second ballot
Penny Mordaunt has continued her remarkable surge in the race to be next Tory leader and prime minister, gaining 83 votes in the second ballot.
Suella Braverman eliminated as second round results announced
Suella Braverman has been knocked out of the race in the second round of voting, with Tom Tugendhat only narrowly ahead of her.
The results are as follows:
Rishi Sunak: 101
Penny Mordaunt: 83
Liz Truss: 64
Kemi Badenoch: 49
Tom Tugendhat: 32
Suella Braverman: 27
Tory leadership candidate says she will ‘eliminate’ right to protection from torture and inhumane treatment
A Conservative party leadership candidate has said she would “eliminate” human rights law protecting people from torture and inhuman treatment, our policy correspondent Jon Stone reports.
Suella Braverman, who has made it into the second round of the contest to replace Boris Johnson, said Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights was tying the government’s hands.
She argued that the government’s policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda could be found illegal under the protections Britain committed to in 1953, and they would have to go.
Article 3 stipulates: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Tory leadership candidate says she will ‘eliminate’ right to protection from torture
Suella Braverman says Article 3 ties government’s hands on deportations to Rwanda
At least one contender to be eliminated from Tory leadership race
At least one candidate faces being eliminated from the race when the results of today’s vote are announced at 3pm.
This process will continue until just a final two candidates are left – who will then be voted upon by Tory Party members.
Analysts today are predicting that all candidates will receive more than 30 votes.
UK faces ‘shift to the right’ regardless of which Tory wins race, Nicola Sturgeon warns
The UK is facing a “shift to the right” regardless of which one of the remaining Tory candidates succeeds Boris Johnson, Nicola Sturgeon has warned.
Insisting that Scottish independence was now “essential”, the first minister claimed Scotland “wouldn’t elect any” of those running in the leadership contest – which she labelled a “deeply undemocratic process”.
The SNP leader hit out as she launched the second paper in a series from the Scottish Government aimed at making a fresh case for Scotland to leave the UK.
“We may be just a few days into this Tory leadership contest but it is already crystal clear the issues Scotland is focused on: tackling child poverty; supporting NHS recovery; building a fairer economy and making a just transition to net zero; will be hindered, not helped, by whoever becomes prime minister in the weeks ahead,” she said from her official residence in Edinburgh.
A lurch to the right would take Westminster “even further away from the mainstream of Scottish opinion and values”, Ms Sturgeon added, raising fears of possible cuts to public services and “more posturing over Brexit” in the future.
