Rishi Sunak takes early lead in Tory leadership contest but momentum grows for Penny Mordaunt

Mr Sunak, the MP for Richmond, received 88 votes in the first round of voting among Conservative MPs, 21 ahead of second-placed Penny Mordaunt who got 67.

Liz Truss (50 votes), Kemi Badenoch (40), Tom Tugendhat (37) and Suella Braverman (32) also made it through to the next stage of voting on Thursday by getting above the 30 vote minimum threshold.

But Mr Zahawi failed to hit that figure with just 25 votes and former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was also eliminated with just 18 votes.

It means the field has now been reduced to a final six candidates.

While Mr Sunak is currently leading amongst MPs, there appears to be growing momentum behind Ms Mordaunt’s campaign.

A YouGov snap poll of 876 Tory members carried out over Tuesday and Wednesday saw 27% respond that they would favour Ms Mordaunt as Mr Johnson’s replacement.

Former minister Kemi Badenoch was second on 15%, while Mr Sunak and Ms Truss were tied on 13%.

Ms Mordaunt, a former defence secretary, launched her pitch to be the next Prime Minister by promising to return to traditional Conservative values of “low tax, small state and personal responsibility”.

“I’m the candidate that Labour fear the most – and they’re right to,”

She promised to put “power back into the hands of parents” through personal budgets which allow every child access to their entitlement to subsidised childcare at any time prior to them starting school.

Ms Mordaunt said attacks against her from within her party were coming from “very sensible people because I’m a threat to their campaign”.

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