The race for the UK Conservative Party leadership and, accordingly, the post of Prime Minister is heating up, as the final candidates get ready for a second round of votes later on Thursday.
At least one of the six remaining contenders will be knocked out after the vote among Tory MPs. Since any hopeful who receives fewer than 30 votes will also be eliminated, the list of candidates may be shortened even further in a gradual war of attrition.
In an interesting twist, there appears to be a new bookmakers’ favorite at this stage. Despite being defeated by former Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the first leadership ballot on 13 July by 88 votes to 67, Penny Mordaunt, the Minister for Trade Policy, has received an impressive surge in support among party MPs.
The 49-year-old junior minister managed to outstrip rival Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary who got just 50 votes, securing second place ahead of the second ballot.
Bookmakers place Mordaunt at 5-1, with shorter odds of winning than Rishi Sunak.
Furthermore, Mordaunt, who served as Secretary of State for Defence in 2019 when Theresa May was prime minister, appears to be the overwhelming choice of the Tory grassroots who will pick the next leader, according to polls from YouGov and Conservative Home.
The YouGov snap survey of 879 members has suggested Sunak would be beaten in a run-off against either Mordaunt or Truss.
Mordaunt secured 27 percent in the poll, whereas Sunak and Truss got 13 percent each.
Besides Sunak, Mordaunt and Truss, the Former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat, and Attorney-General Suella Braverman also cleared the hurdle of the first ballot with 40, 37 and 32 votes respectively.
The present Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi and Jeremy Hunt, who had also been nominated for the first stage on Tuesday, failed to secure the support of a minimum threshold of at least 30 Tory MPs to make it to the next stage.
The second round of voting by Tory MPs is scheduled to start at 11.30am, with 1.30pm set as the deadline for casting a ballot. The result will be announced by Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, formally known as the Conservative Private Members' Committee in the House of Commons, at 3pm.
The candidate with the lowest number of supporters will be eliminated from the race. The following days will see more ballots cast until the list of contenders is whittled down to just two before the de facto 21 July deadline ahead of the summer recess at the House of Commons.
After a summer of hustings - meetings where election candidates debate policies and answer questions from the audience – there will be a final vote by around 160,000 Conservative Party members before the winner is confirmed on 5 September.
Boris Johnson at present remains caretaker Prime Minister after his resignation on 7 July amid the latest scandal to rock Downing Street. Johnson will hold the post until the new leader of the Conservatives is announced.