LONDON: Former chancellor Rishi Sunak has taken his lead in the race to replace Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party and as British prime minister. He has got 14 more votes in the latest round of voting by Tory members of parliament. Sunak, 42, has consistently topped the list since voting began last week and received 115 votes in the third round on Monday, leaving only four candidates in the race.
Business Minister Penny Mordaunt is second with 82 votes, followed by Foreign Minister Liz Truss with 71 votes and former Equality Minister Cami Badenoch with 58 votes. Tom Tugendhat, in the Tories (Conservative Party) and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, won 31 votes, down from 32 last time and was eliminated from the competition.
The fourth round of voting will be held on Tuesday, at the end of which another candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated and by Thursday only two candidates will make it to the final list. Sunak got 101 votes in the last round. He got 14 more votes in the latest round of voting, while Mordaunt secured one vote less than the 83 he won in the second voting round last week. Truss has improved its figure and has gone up by 64 votes to 71. Badenoch, on the other hand, advanced to 49 in the final round and came down to 58 votes.
The magic figure is 120, the candidate must make the final list of two candidates competing for the Tory membership vote with the support of at least 120 of his Conservative Party allies. The last few rounds of voting are being held this week.
