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.
As expected, Rishi Sunak remains on top with 101 backers – as Suella Braverman was eliminated from the contest – but Ms Mordaunt continues to breathe down the former chancellor’s neck.
The foreign secretary Liz Truss remains in deep trouble after a campaign that has failed to catch alight. She gathered just 64 votes.
Kemi Badenoch remains a rival to be the candidate for the right of the party, with 49 votes – while the centrist Tom Tugendhat has slipped back, from 37 to just 32 votes.
Mr Tugendhat will now come under pressure to pull out of the contest, but has suggested he will fight on in the hope of impressing in the weekend live TV debates.
Ms Braverman scored just 27 votes, which the Truss camp will be desperate to grab over the next few days before the third ballot on Monday.
The first stage of the contest will not end until next Wednesday – unless someone drops out – after which Tory party members will choose between the two surviving candidates, over August.
A bombshell poll on Wednesday gave the little-known Ms Mordaunt a huge lead among the grassroots – who appear to favour a clean break with cabinet ministers tainted by Boris Johnson’s reign.
Mr Sunak’s camp claimed it was “pleased” with the result and argued rivals are shifting their positions, a source saying: “Some of the other candidates are now starting to back off what they said before.”
The former chancellor would not be engaging in “those funny games some people have suggested”, the source insisted – amid suggestions that votes could be “lent” to Ms Truss, to knock out Ms Mordaunt.
That looks highly unlikely anyway, given Mr Sunak would have hoped to have secured many more than 101 supporters by this stage.
The Truss camp played down expectations that she is struggling, arguing she was never likely to gain from Wednesday’s elimination of Jeremy Hunt from the race.
Simon Clarke, the Treasury chief secretary and a Truss supporter, insisted: “I think we are in a very good position in this race, relative to where we expected to be at this point
He pointed to Ms Braverman’s supporters as a group likely to switch to the foreign secretary, because they “share her views on European questions”.
Mr Sunak, who is just 19 votes short of a guaranteed slot in the run-off, tweeted: “I am incredibly grateful for the continued support from my colleagues and the wider public.
“I am prepared to give everything I have in service to our nation. Together we can restore trust, rebuild our economy and reunite the country.”
