Penny Mordaunt favourite among members as two crash out of leadership race

Penny Mordaunt has emerged as the favourite to replace Boris Johnson among Conservative members as two senior figures crashed out of the leadership race after failing to secure enough support.

Penny Mordaunt at the launch of her campaign to be Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Jeremy Hunt and Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi were both eliminated in the first round of voting among Tory MPs, with former chancellor Rishi Sunak topping the ballot.

He secured 88 votes, with Ms Mordaunt in second place on 67 and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss third on 50.

Senior backbencher Tom Tugendhat, Attorney General Suella Braverman, and former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch also progressed to the final six candidates.

Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the Conservative 1922 committee overseeing the contest, read out the results in a crowded Committee Room 14 in the House of Commons.

Mr Hunt, who failed to get the 30 votes required to get to the next stage, has held the offices of health and foreign secretary and lost to Mr Johnson in the 2019 leadership race.

He secured just 18 votes while Mr Zahawi, brought in by Mr Johnson after Mr Sunak’s resignation, got 25.

Ms Truss is now seeking to unite the right of the party, as subsequent voting will eliminate the least popular candidate until just two are left. Around 160,000 Tory members will then choose the next party leader and prime minister.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Secretary said: “Now is the time for colleagues to unite behind the candidate who will cut taxes, deliver the real economic change we need from day one and ensure Putin loses in Ukraine.”

Ms Truss will today set out her pitch with a pledge to “level up in a Conservative way” and cut taxes.

In a campaign speech, she will detail her economic plan, which includes reversing April’s National Insurance rate rise, lowering corporation tax and enacting supply-side reforms.

She is expected to say: “My mission is to make our country an aspiration nation, where every child, every person has the best opportunity to succeed.

“I have a plan to make Britain a high-growth economy through bold supply-side reform.”

The South West Norfolk MP will also refer to her education at a northern comprehensive school, where she saw children who “failed” due to “low expectations”.

She will say: “They will never be let down again on my watch.

“Everyone in our great country should be born with the same opportunities and be able to know that the town they are born in has opportunity”.

A snap poll of 879 Conservative Party members, carried out by YouGov, found Ms Mordaunt enjoyed a clear lead over her rivals.

Asked which candidates they most wanted to replace Boris Johnson, 27 per cent chose the trade minister.

Ms Badenoch came a distant second on 15 per cent, followed by Mr Sunak and Ms Truss on 13 per cent each.

Pairing off the candidates in head-to-head contests also showed Ms Mordaunt emerging top in every case.

Mr Sunak, in comparison, performed poorly in the head-to-heads, despite currently enjoying the most support among Tory MPs.

Scottish Tory MP John Lamont, who is backing Ms Mordaunt, said the result of the first round of voting was “promising”.

He said: “Penny is winning over MPs who have been impressed by her positive plans to turbo-charge economic growth and deliver for all of the United Kingdom.

"She is the clear choice to unite our party and bring our country together.”

It came after Downing Street was forced to deny running a “stop Sunak” smear campaign as the leadership battle grew increasingly bitter.

The caretaker Prime Minister’s press secretary insisted that Mr Johnson is “staying neutral” despite his remaining arch-loyalists throwing their support behind Ms Truss.

Two of them, Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg, announced their backing and stepped up their public criticism of Mr Sunak after leaving Mr Johnson’s Cabinet meeting.

Ms Dorries, the Culture Secretary, accused the former chancellor’s campaign of deploying “dirty tricks” and backed Ms Truss as the Brexiteers’ candidate.

Brexit Opportunities Minister Mr Rees-Mogg accused Mr Sunak of having implemented “economically damaging” policies.

Asked if No 10 is involved in an anti-Sunak operation as the first round of voting loomed, Mr Johnson’s press secretary bluntly said: “No.”

She declined to say whether Downing Street remains supportive of the former chancellor, whose resignation helped end Mr Johnson’s grip on No 10.

Mr Rees-Mogg argued that the Foreign Secretary is “fiscally on the right side of the argument”, unlike Mr Sunak.

The minister told Sky News that Ms Truss “opposed the endless tax rises of the former chancellor, which I think have been economically damaging, I also was opposed to (them) in Cabinet”.

He also said Ms Truss – who voted Remain in the 2016 European Union referendum – is more willing to take advantage of Brexit than Leave-voting Mr Sunak.

Ms Mordaunt officially launched her campaign yesterday by telling colleagues who had been fearful of losing their seats under Mr Johnson’s leadership that she is their “best shot” at winning the next election.

She told Conservatives at Westminster’s Cinnamon Club: “I’m the candidate that Labour fear the most – and they’re right to.”

The naval reservist and former defence secretary pledged to return to traditional Conservative values of “low tax, small state and personal responsibility”.

She insisted she is “very different” from Mr Johnson but indicated she would not call an early general election to win her own mandate if she entered No 10.

Ms Mordaunt said she stands by the Conservative manifesto commitment to meet the Nato target for defence spending of 2 per cent of GDP and increase it by 0.5 per cent above inflation every year.

She won the backing of Sir Mike Penning, who resigned as Conservative Party vice-chairman to campaign for her.

Meanwhile, Mr Sunak used a Daily Telegraph interview to claim his economic vision amounts to “common-sense Thatcherism”.

He insisted he would take a more responsible approach to tax cuts.

He said: “We will cut taxes and we will do it responsibly. That’s my economic approach. I would describe it as common sense Thatcherism. I believe that’s what she would have done.”

Elsewhere, former army officer Tom Tugendhat, who has pledged to boost defence spending, took a thinly-veiled swipe at Mr Sunak’s refusal to set “arbitrary targets” in this area, telling reporters: “We will never put the safety of our country in doubt because of bean counters and spreadsheets.

“Security always comes before spreadsheets.”

A separate poll yesterday found Mr Sunak remains the most popular potential Tory leader among the public, but most other candidates lack “name recognition”.

Some 37 per cent of the public told pollster Ipsos that the former chancellor would do a good job as prime minister, making him the only leadership candidate with a higher rating than Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on 33 per cent.