Eight candidates have made it through to the first round of voting for the Conservative party leadership.
1922 Committee Chairman Sir Graham Brady announced the competitors for outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson's job at the 6pm close of the deadline for nominations on Tuesday.
The eight candidates include former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, Attorney General Suella Braverman, 2019 leadership runner-up Jeremy Hunt and Trade Policy Minister Penny Mordaunt.
Bookies' favourite Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor of the exchequer who led the walkout from cabinet that forced Johnson's resignation, is also on the ballot along with foreign secretary Liz Truss, Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat and Sunak's replacement as chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.
Four of the candidates are from ethnic minorities and four are women. The first hustings debate was set to kick of at 7pm UK time.
Despite the backbench committee raising the bar to 20 nominations from eight during the last leadership contest in 2019, almost as many candidates made it thorough to the first knock-out round of balloting by Conservative MPs.
Badenoch, Braverman and Mordaunt are all Brexiteers, although Mordaunt is more socially liberal while Badenoch is an anti-'woke' candidate who has pledged to put the government's 'net zero' carbon emissions policy on hold.
Hunt and Tugendhat are leading Tory Europhiles who are now trying to play down their opposition to Britain's exit from the European Union.
Tugendhat and Truss, another Remainer, have been among the loudest cheerleaders for arms supplies to the Ukraine and sanctions on Russia that have only caused record inflation in the UK.
Former health secretary Sajid Javid, Home Secretary Priti Patel, Transport Secretary Grant Schapps, backbench MP Rehamn Chisti and COVID Recovery Group deputy chairman Steve Baker had already dropped out of the race.
The eight leadership hopefuls must now compete for support from fellow Conservative MPs. A series of ballots will see the candidate with the least support eliminated, along with any failing to reach an ever-increasing threshold of votes.
The final two will be put to a postal ballot of all Conservative Party members — up to 200,000 at a recent count.
Mordaunt and Badenoch are most popular among the Tory grassroots, according to a new poll by website Conservative Home, but there is no guarantee they will make it onto the final ballot.