Conservatives are braced for a “blue on blue dogfight” as Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss enter a six-week battle to become the UK’s next prime minister, with Penny Mordaunt’s supporters blaming hostile briefing for knocking her out of the race.
The vote among MPs selecting the final two candidates saw Sunak retain his lead, with 137 votes. Truss, the foreign secretary who had trailed Mordaunt throughout the previous rounds, took 113 votes, just ahead of Mordaunt’s 105.
