Mr Sunak won 101 votes in the second round of voting, with Ms Mordaunt getting 83. The gap of 18 votes between them is smaller than in the first round of voting where there was a difference of 21 between them.

Suella Braverman was eliminated from the contest, receiving just 27 votes in today's vote - down from 32 in the first round of voting.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss remained third with 64 votes, while Kemi Badenoch (49 votes) and Tom Tugendhat (32 votes) both made it to the next stage of voting.

Penny Mordaunt is now the bookmakers' favourite to become the next Prime Minister

Tory MPs will continue to vote in subsequent rounds until two candidates are left, who will then battle it out over the summer to win the support of Conservative members, with their choice of the next prime minister being unveiled on September 5.

Strong opinion polling has also buoyed Ms Mordaunt’s campaign, pushing her into the status of bookmakers’ favourite to become the next Tory leader and prime minister.

But supporters of Ms Truss seized on a scathing attack on Ms Mordaunt from former Brexit minister Lord Frost.

He told TalkTV: “I am quite surprised at where she is in this leadership race. She was my deputy – notionally, more than really – in the Brexit talks last year.

Rishi Sunak has won the second round of voting by Tory MPs.

“I felt she did not master the detail that was necessary in the negotiations last year. She wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the European Union when that was necessary.

“She wasn’t fully accountable, she wasn’t always visible. Sometimes I didn’t even know where she was. This became such a problem that, after six months, I had to ask the Prime Minister to move her on and find somebody else to support me.”

Allies of Ms Mordaunt said she had “nothing but respect” for Lord Frost despite his scathing attack on her.

A source in the Penny Mordaunt campaign said: “Penny has nothing but respect for Lord Frost.

“He did a huge amount to assist our negotiations until he resigned from Government.

“Penny will always fight for Brexit and always has.”

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Tory leadership vote: Penny Mordaunt narrows gap on Rishi Sunak as Suella Braverman eliminated