Tory members to choose between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss as Penny Mordaunt knocked out
Conservative party leadership contender Liz Truss at yesterday’s Channel 4 debate. Picture by Victoria Jones / PA Wire
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have made it through to the final two in the Tory leadership race, with Penny Mordaunt eliminated from the contest after the final round of voting by MPs.
Penny Mordaunt received 105 votes, Rishi Sunak 137 and Liz Truss 113 with the top two now facing a ballot of party members to decide the next Conservative leader and prime minister.
Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, read out the results this afternoon before the final two faced their next electorate: the Tory membership.
‘Trust’
Rishi Sunak’s campaign said he had secured a “clear mandate” from Tory MPs and will now “work night and day” to win the backing of the Conservative membership after he made it onto the final ballot for the leadership contest.
A statement read: “This is a really strong result with a clear mandate from MPs.
“He will now work night and day to get the mandate from the wider Conservative party family to beat Labour, protect the Union and seize the opportunities of Brexit.
“The choice for members is very simple: who is the best person to beat Labour at the next election? The evidence shows that’s Rishi.”
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss thanked supporters for entrusting her after she made it onto the final ballot in the Tory leadership campaign.
She tweeted: “Thank you for putting your trust in me. I’m ready to hit the ground from day one.”
the Truss campaign has deleted her tweet promising to “hit the ground” asap pic.twitter.com/wshJ39dFVH
— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) July 20, 2022
In a statement after her elimination from the contest Penny Mordaunt congratulated Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss.
“I pay tribute to anyone who puts themselves forward for such a demanding role,” she said.
“Politics isn’t easy. It can be a divisive and difficult place. We must all now work together to unify our party and focus on the job that needs to be done.
“I am a One Nation, proud Brexiteer. My campaign put forward a positive vision for the country I love so much, remembering who we are here to serve.
“Our mission is not only to deliver on what we promised but to win the fight against Labour at the next general election. I hope to play my part in both.”
Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting tweeted: “Our next prime minister will be someone who propped up Johnson, voted for every one of his 15 tax rises, and parroted his lies.
“After 12 years of Conservative failure they expect to more time to fail. Their time is up. Only Labour offers the fresh start that Britain needs.”
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Mae arnai ofn mae E. Powell fydd gwir ennillydd y bleidlais hon yn anffodus.
It’s been obvious since some time before Johnson resigned that Truss and Sunak were the two cabinet members being groomed for future leadership roles. It’s also been obvious for the last few rounds of this leadership battle that Truss was the only one likely to hoover up votes from hard right headbangers like Badenoch and Braverman as they dropped out. And it seems pretty obvious that the sort of people who would still be tory members at this point will largely be far too racist to vote for anyone but Truss, even if Sunak didn’t already have a reputation for… Read more »
Yep Doc…. that about sums it up.
I heard someone say today on the radio (possibly Chris Bryant) if Truss gets made PM, she won’t be leading the party into the next GE, I believe she’s known as the continuity candidate, who knows?
Duw a helpa ni!
What she said: “I am a One Nation, proud Brexiteer. My campaign put forward a positive vision for the country I love so much, remembering who we are here to serve.”
What she meant: “I’m a honking great big British Nationalist and I’m more than happy to cow-tow to the hard right ideologues in my party even though I didn’t vote the way they did. I’ll talk the talk so I can best serve the interests of the person I love the most. Myself.”
The Tories are going to be split down the middle, Labour is still not recovered from Corbyn, what an opportunity for a united Plaid Cymru……oh wait a minute!
You should read the Forde report, Corbyn wasn’t the problem.
I correctly predicted Kemi Badenoch would eliminated from the race, but was wrong that Rishi Sunak would be next for the chop with Penny Mordaunt up against Liz Truss, although it’s highly likely that Rishy Sunak will assume he’s one step away from becoming PM only for his dream to be dashed by resentful Boris Johnson supporters who will vote for political chameleon Liz Truss who day by day is increasingly adopting a more Thatcherite guise.
It’s a tough one this. A non-dom, tax avoiding banker who is closer to fascism than he seems and a draught excluder who makes planks appear intelligent.
The evil of two lessers
So the conservative faithful get to chose, yet again, just how much sh*t the rest of us have to put up with.