Tory leadership contest whittled down to five as Suella Braverman eliminated

The Conservative leadership election has been whittled down to five candidates as Suella Braveman became the latest candidate to be eliminated from the race in a second round of voting by Tory MPs.

1922 committee chair Graham Brady announced the results of the second ballot of Tory MPs this afternoon. Braverman, the attorney general, received the backing of just 27 of her colleagues, short of the 30 votes required to progress.

Rishi Sunak received the most votes of any candidate, as he did in the first round on Wednesday. The former Chancellor was backed by 101 Conservative MPs, ahead of Penny Mordaunt on 83.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss secured the support of 64 Tory MPs, followed by Kemi Badenoch on 49. Tom Tugendhat came fifth with 32 votes.

Further rounds of voting will take place next week to narrow the field down to two candidates, who will then be voted on by the Conservative Party membership. Televised debates between the remaining candidates will take place on Channel 4, ITV and Sky News – scheduled for Friday, Sunday and Monday respectively.

Mordaunt – who also came second in the first round of voting on Wednesday – gained the most votes from the first round to the second round, receiving the backing of 16 more MPs in today’s vote.

Sunak gained 13 additional votes in the second round, Truss 14 and Badenoch nine, while Tugendhat and Braverman’s totals both fell by five. Brady announced that a total of 356 votes were cast out of a possible 358.

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt were eliminated from the leadership race on Wednesday after failing to reach the threshold of 30 MPs. Zahawi received 25 votes and Hunt 18.

This is a breaking story and will continue to be updated.