Former finance minister Rishi Sunak widened his lead in the latest round of voting Monday (July 18) by Conservative MPs to decide Britain’s next prime minister, but the race to get in the final two tightened.
Sunak won the support of 115 Tory lawmakers, followed by Penny Mordaunt on 82 votes, Liz Truss on 71, Kemi Badenoch on 58 and Tom Tugendhat on 31, who drops out as the last-placed candidate, the party announced.
MPs will keep voting until only two candidates remain, the winner then being decided by the party members.
Mordaunt had been bookmakers’ favourite before the weekend, but lost votes from the previous round.
Foreign Secretary Truss closed the gap to 11 and can probably expect more support switching to her from Badenoch’s backers, should the insurgent candidate be eliminated in the next round, promising a tense race to make the final cut Wednesday.
Poster Comment:
He was born in England. But he is married to the daughter of an Indian billionaire, the founder of Infosys, Murthy.)