Conservative leadership race

Foreign secretary draws slightly closer to top two, but fails to pick up as much support as Kemi Badenoch.

“Nobody has been attacked more savagely in the press.” Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Chloe Smith MP, a member of the One Nation caucus campaigning for Ms Truss, pleaded for fellow moderates in the party to look again the foreign secretary for the leadership. Ms Mordaunt, who shares a military background with Mr Tugendhat, added: “I know that we are both committed to a clean start for our party and I believe he is one of the strongest assets on the Conservative green benches.” Mr Tugendhat, the only candidate never to have held ministerial office, said he was “overwhelmed” by the scale of his support, which he said showed the country was “ready for a clean start” which would “put trust back into politics”. With a sizeable chunk of Mr Tugendhat’s backers expected to switch to the international trade minister in the next round of voting on Tuesday, Ms Truss’s hopes will depend on wooing supporters of “anti-woke” insurgent Kemi Badenoch.

Pressure still on foreign secretary in leadership race as she gains just seven new backers in latest round.

Some of the ousted MP’s supporters said they would meet after the vote for a commiseration drink and discuss with each other who to back instead. “That’s going to undermine his position, because as a former chancellor, for him to go on level pegging, that’s damning.” The MP said he had been offered jobs in future administrations if he dropped out of the race, but he wanted to see party democracy run its course. Sunak gained 14 supporters from the last ballot, to put him on a total of 115, trailed by Penny Mordaunt, who lost one, giving her a total of 82. “This is about day one competence, she is showing she has always had the best depth and breadth of experience,” he added. “The threat we face is existential.”

Liz Truss, foreign secretary, on Tuesday narrowed the gap with trade minister Penny Mordaunt as they battled to join former chancellor Rishi Sunak in the ...

The chair of the foreign affairs committee has been eliminated in the third round of voting, leaving four candidates vying to be prime minister.

I'm in it to win." "To win an election we need the country behind us. Thank you to all my colleagues for their support. This is only the beginning!" It's all to play for. "One thing is clear - if we cannot rebuild trust, our party is doomed.

In their efforts to appoint a successor to Boris Johnson, Conservative MPs whittled the contenders to four on Monday. | ITV National News.

she’s ahead and she’s heading in the right direction, so that’s good.” Three or four each to Truss and Badenoch. If right Badenoch out tomorrow. I’m in it to win.” The MP for Tonbridge and Malling said: "It has been an amazing run. Former chancellor Rishi Sunak got 115 votes, topping the ballot for a third time. “Conservative MPs are said to be concerned about the damage the debates are doing to the image of the Conservative Party, exposing disagreements and splits within the party."

The race to become Conservative Party leader and replace Boris Johnson as prime minister has been whittled down to four candidates.

What does she say on tax? What does she say on tax? What does she say about the net zero target? What does she say on defence spending? What did she do before politics? What’s her position on identity politics? What does he say on tax? Where does she stand on identity politics? What does he say on defence spending? She has pledged a 50% cut in VAT on fuel. How did she vote in the 2016 Brexit referendum? How did she vote in the 2016 Brexit referendum?

Get our free Inside Politics email ... Tory MPs will vote again on Tuesday in the Conservative leadership bid, as the race for second place intensifies after Tom ...

If the government had been defeated it would have almost certainly triggered a general election. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. So you get a severe danger of tracks buckling, what we can’t have is trains running over those and a terrible derailing. Contenders for the Conservative leadership are engaged in frenzied horse-trading for a handful of MPs’ votes which will decide who will go into the final battle to succeed Boris Johnson and become prime minister. But a Tory rebellion appeared unlikely, given the party remains leaderless and in no fit state to go to the polls, reports Adam Forrest: Mr Zahawi, in a speech to the City, will say the country should be “confident” the government can get a handle on inflation as the cost-of-living pressure on households continues to bite. In a sign of concern about the way the leadership race is being conducted, Conservative Party leadership frontrunners Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss confirmed they did not want to take part in a Sky News debate planned for Tuesday – prompting the broadcaster to cancel the show. The outgoing prime minister is set to praise the resilience of schools and the NHS in the face of extreme heat in what is expected to be his final scheduled cabinet. Speaking ahead of cabinet, the prime minister is expected to say: “We were the first country in the world to administer approved vaccines. And the report found that the poorest areas of the country have been hit hardest as spending on early intervention services was halved by councils in England from £3.8bn to £1.9bn between 2010-11 and 2020-21. “There is a war going on in Europe. Why on earth would he not go and meet with the RAF” “We’ve got to be very cautious and conscious of that, which is why there’s reduced speeds on large parts of the network.”

As the Conservative leadership contest continues, the outgoing prime minister will chair his final scheduled cabinet meeting. Boris Johnson is expected to ...

The final two candidates will carry out hustings over the summer before a vote by the wider party membership, and the final result is expected to be announced on 5 September. Mr Johnson is expected to discuss the heatwave with his ministers - after he faced criticism for missing three emergency COBRA meetings on the matter in recent days - as well as marking the anniversary of England coming out of COVID measures. The last four runners in the Conservative leadership contest will face another round of voting later, as the party decides who will replace Boris Johnson in Downing Street.