LONDON (AP) — The fractious race to replace Boris Johnson as Britain’s prime minister came to an abrupt end Tuesday as three Conservative Party leadership candidates were left fighting for the two seats in a runoff.
Kemi Badenoch, a previously little-known lawmaker who has become a rising star on the party’s right wing, was eliminated from the race after receiving the fewest votes from conservative lawmakers in their fourth round of voting.
After the final vote knocked out Badenoch, former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak led a dwindling field of candidates and all but secured a place in the final two. Trade Secretary Penny Mordaunt and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who were closely behind him, will now battle it out to woo Badenoch’s supporters ahead of Wednesday’s final elimination vote.
All are running to succeed Johnson, who stepped down as party leader this month after a snowball of ethics scandals sparked mass resignations in his government.
The two finalists will go to a ballot by all 180,000 Conservative Party members, with the winner expected to be announced on September 5.
Sunak received 118 votes on Tuesday, two short of the number that would have ensured he was one of two candidates the Conservatives could choose. Mordaunt received 92 votes, Truss 86 and Badenoch 59.
The other candidates are also courting supporters of Tom Tugendhat, an influential lawmaker who was eliminated from the race on Monday.
Mordaunt and Badenoch both praised Tugendhat on Twitter after Monday’s vote. Truss has pledged to increase military spending from 2% to 3% of gross domestic product – a key issue for Tugendhat, a former soldier who chairs the House of Commons foreign affairs committee.
The bitter campaign exposed deep divisions within the Conservative Party at the end of Johnson’s scandal-tainted administration. Opponents accused Sunak of raising taxes in response to the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Sunak hit back that his rivals were spreading economic “fairy tales”.
In a race where every vote counts, the electorate of 358 Conservative lawmakers was reduced on Tuesday to 357. Tobias Ellwood, a critic of Johnson who supports Mordaunt, was suspended from the party caucus in parliament after he failed to vote in a vote of confidence on Monday.
The government easily won the vote thanks to a large conservative majority, but Ellwood was penalized for not interrupting a trip to Moldova to return for him.
Ellwood, who chairs parliament’s defense committee, said he had been unable to return “due to unprecedented turmoil both here and in the UK”, where the heatwave is contributing to summer travel chaos.
“I’m very sorry to lose the whip, but I will now continue my meetings in Ukraine, encouraging the Prime Minister’s efforts here and specifically seeking to ensure that the port of Odessa is reopened – so that vital grain exports can resume.” , Ellwood said.
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