Stakes raised for second round of Conservative voting

Mordaunt campaign suffers setback

The six remaining contenders to be the next leader of Britain's Conservative Party and to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister were in fighting mood ahead of the second round of voting, due to take place on Thursday.

With former health secretary Jeremy Hunt and Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi having been eliminated in Wednesday's first vote, Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss have emerged as the three leading contenders.

Trade Minister Mordaunt's early momentum has been reduced, however, by an interview in which her former boss, the former chief Brexit negotiator Lord Frost, said he would have "grave reservations" about her taking the top job.

"To be honest, I'm quite surprised she is where she is in this race. She was my deputy — notionally more than really — in the Brexit talks last year," he told TalkTV.

"She wouldn't always deliver tough messages to the European Union when that was necessary and I'm afraid she wasn't fully accountable or always visible. Sometimes I didn't even know where she was.

"This became such a problem that after 6 months I had to ask (Johnson) to move her on and find somebody else to support me."

Foreign Secretary Truss launched her bid with a speech in which she said she was ready to be prime minister "from day one" and spoke of the "huge challenges" posed by the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, and the on-going effects of the conflict in Ukraine.

"Now is the time to be bold, we cannot have business as usual economic management, which has led to low growth for decades," she said, adding that was "prepared to do whatever it takes to get the job done.

"We have to level with the British public that our economy will not get back on track overnight.

"Times are going to be tough, but I know that I can get us on an upward trajectory by 2024."

Votes gained in one round of voting are not guaranteed for the next, however, as Conservative members of Parliament, who are the only ones voting at this stage before the final two candidates are voted on by party members, may change their position for tactical reasons.

Hunt's decision to give his backing to Sunak has reportedly gone down very badly with supporters of Mordaunt, who backed him in his unsuccessful leadership campaign against Johnson in 2019, and Sky News reports that Hunt had said he would give his backing to another candidate, Tom Tugendhat.

"Tom's … the only candidate that didn't serve in the government. He's the only option for a clean start," one supporter told Sky News.

"Hunt's supporters will hopefully see their values and interests align now with Tom, not with Boris Johnson's chancellor (Sunak), his foreign secretary (Truss) or his cabinet minister (Mordaunt)."

The other two remaining candidates are Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch.