Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt have maintained their places at the front of the Tory leadership race after Tom Tugendhat was eliminated in the third round of voting on Monday night.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is now trailing in third place and will scramble to gain switchers from fourth placed Kemi Badenoch in the next round of voting.
Former chancellor Rishi Sunak maintained his dominant position with 115 votes, virtually guaranteeing his place in the membership vote, and ahead of Mordaunt in second place on 82 votes.
READ MORE: Tory TV debate descends into public slanging match
Liz Truss was 11 behind on 71 votes but closing the gap on her Trade Minister rival to take on Sunak in the run-off vote of party members.
Kemi Badenoch scored 58 votes, proving her alternative bid for a right of centre challenge was worthwhile but she will now come under pressure to fold her support behind Truss.
Tugendhat was eliminated, as anticipated, with 31 votes.
Further rounds of voting are to take place until Tory MPs whittle down the list to two candidates who will go forwards for a summer-long campaign to win the votes of Tory party members.
A new leader is expected to be announced in September but the contest has already exposed deep splits in the Tory party over Boris Johnson's legacy.
A Sunday night TV debate with the five candidates quickly became a political alley fight with daggers drawn as rivals sought to wound each others chances.
Sky News was scheduled to host another debate on Tuesday, but it has been cancelled after Sunak and Truss pulled out to avoid further bloodshed in public.
The candidates and Tory MPs were shaken and left furious by the public slanging match that Sunday’s ITV debate produced with Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch at former chancellor Rishi Sunak’s throat for his handling of the economy and his opposition to early tax cuts.
Both Truss and Sunak have promised to take part in further debates if they get through to the next round but no more public hustings or hostilities are expected before the final two candidates are declared.
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