Mel Stride has been knocked out of the Conservative leadership contest in the second round of voting by Tory MPs.
Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick topped the poll of MPs with 33 votes, followed by shadow housing secretary Kemi Badenoch on 28 votes.
The results from the second of voting were as follows:
- Robert Jenrick – 33
- Kemi Badenoch – 28
- James Cleverly – 21
- Tom Tugendhat – 21
- Mel Stride – 16
Dame Priti Patel became the first candidate to be eliminated from the race last week, after she picked up only 14 MP backers in the initial round of voting.
Jenrick gained an extra five supporters from the last round of voting, while Badenoch won a further six.
James Cleverly, who came third in the first ballot — only one vote behind Badenoch, is now joint with Tom Tugendhat, who gained four new backers.
The final four candidates will address the party faithful at the annual Conservative conference next month.
Reacting to his second first place finish in as many rounds, Jenrick thanked colleagues for backing his message of “change”.
The former cabinet minister said he is “incredibly grateful” for the support he has received “from all wings of the Conservative Party.”
He told Sky News: “I’m incredibly grateful to all of the colleagues from all wings of the Conservative Party who’ve supported me today.
“I’m incredibly grateful to them for the honour of their votes. And the message that I have put across so far in this campaign is change, changing the Conservative Party to restore the public’s trust and confidence in us and begin the process of getting back into contention.
“I’m incredibly grateful that people have listened to that, responded to that and are supporting it.”
Kemi Badenoch has vowed to “cut through in opposition” and fix Britain’s “broken political system” after she finished second once again.
The former business and trade secretary said: “Thank you to every one of my colleagues who voted for me. I’m grateful to be in the top two and to have won the most new votes at this round. I’m also excited to take my campaign to conference.
“We need a leader who can cut through in opposition, and defeat Labour and Reform.
“Most importantly, we need someone with conviction, strength of purpose and the knowledge to rewire our broken political system. That’s what I’ll be showing in Birmingham later this month.”
Labour, meanwhile, has claimed none of the remaining Conservative leadership candidates are “cut out for the job” as they blamed all four of the hopefuls for “14 years of chaos and decline”.
A Labour spokesman said: “The Tories whittled down a list of five people who played key roles in 14 years of chaos and decline, to four people who played key roles in 14 years of chaos and decline.
“Their failure to take responsibility for the mess they made, demonstrates that none of these candidates are cut out for the job.
“They’ve learnt nothing from their mistakes, and as they continue to fight amongst themselves, Labour is getting on with the job of fixing the terrible inheritance they left behind.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on X/Twitter here.
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