LAST UPDATE | 13 Jun 2019
THREE CANDIDATES HAVE been eliminated from the Conservative leadership contest with Boris Johnson securing a big win from the votes of 313 MPs.
Esther McVey (9), Mark Harper (10) and Andrea Leadsom (11) were all eliminated in the first round of voting after failing to securing the required 17 votes to proceed.
Johnson secured 114 votes, comfortably above a third of the available votes. If Johnson was to maintain that number, he would be guaranteed a place in the run-off vote conducted among Conservative members.
Ten names were on today’s ballot and seven will now continue to the next vote on Tuesday.
In the second vote, candidates who do not receive the support of 33 MPs will be eliminated.
Further votes will be held until only two candidates are left, who will then be put before the party’s wider membership.
MPs voted in a secret ballot today and the results were announced just after 1pm.
These are the candidates who made the cut and progress to the next round:
Johnson’s clear lead among MPs and a similarly wide lead in polling of Conservative members has put the controversial former foreign secretary in prime position to lead his party.
Launching his campaign yesterday, Johnson said he didn’t want a no-deal Brexit but that the best way of avoiding it is to prepare for that eventuality.
Asked about some of his more controversial statements, such as a comparison of Muslim women to post-boxes, Johnson apologised if he caused offence but pledged to “continue to speak as directly I can”.
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