Tom Tugendhat, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons of the British Parliament, had to leave the electoral race and drop out of the struggle for the post of Prime Minister of the country following the results of the third round of the election of the new leader of the Conservative Party of Great Britain.
Former finance minister Rishi Sunak received the most support with 115 votes. In addition to him, three more candidates continue to fight – Junior UK Trade Policy Minister Penny Mordaunt (82 votes), Foreign Minister Liz Truss (71 votes), former Minister for Equality and Local Self-Government Kemi Badenoch (58 votes).
The results of the vote were announced by the head of the so-called “committee 1922” (a parliamentary group from the Conservative Party in the House of Commons of Great Britain), Sir Graham Brady, on the air of Sky News. According to him, Tugendhat received the fewest votes (31), and therefore left the race.
Sky News notes that in this round, Sunak secured 14 votes, Truss received seven votes, Badenoch – nine. Mordaunt, in turn, lost one vote compared to the results of the second round of elections.
Last week, former British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Treasury Secretary Nadhim Zahavi and Attorney General Suella Braverman dropped out of the fight in the first and second rounds of elections. At the same time, Hunt and Zahavi failed to overcome the bar of 30 votes required to enter the second round.
The process of choosing a new party leader started on 13 July. The Conservative Party will hold a series of ballots until only two candidates remain. After that, party members will have to choose their leader before a deadline set by the “1922 committee” (the Conservative party parliamentary group in the UK House of Commons).
On July 8, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that he agreed to resign, but after the Conservatives elect a new party leader.
Johnson has been Prime Minister of the UK since 24 July 2019.
British media believe that the main reason for Johnson’s impending resignation is a number of scandals, in which he has become a defendant in recent months.
