Sunak Tops First Ballot as Total of Six Candidates Move to Second Round of Tory Leadership Race

The Conservative Party was thrust into a snap leadership race last week after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that he would be stepping down as head of government and party leader amid a swirling series of scandals rocking his government, pushed over the top by the sexual misadventures of a 'hands-on' deputy chief whip.

A total of six candidates have received enough votes to move to the second round of the Conservative party leadership race.

Ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, Junior Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat, ex-Levelling Up Minister Kemi Badenovich, and Attorney General for England and Wales Suella Braverman made it through the first round. Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee Jeremy Hunt and Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi were knocked out of the race after failing to meet the 30-vote threshold.

Sir Graham Brady, chair of the backbench 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady, has revealed the number of MPs who had endorsed the six candidates.

• Rishi Sunak - 88 votes
• Penny Mordaunt - 67 votes
• Liz Truss - 50 votes
• Tom Tugendhat - 37 votes
• Kemi Badenoch - 40 votes
• Suella Braverman - 32 votes

The second round of voting is scheduled for Thursday.

Sunak, 42, served as chancellor (Britain's equivalent of a finance minister) for two years, and portrayed himself as a key ally of Johnson's before resigning last week. On Tuesday, as he formally launched his leadership bid, Sunak hailed Johnson as "one of the most remarkable people" he'd "ever met," and suggested that "whatever some commentators may say, he has a good heart."

Mordaunt, 49, has been minister of state for trade policy since September 2021, and is one of the other candidates favored to succeed Johnson. Unlike other high-profile Johnson officials including Sunak, secretary of state for health and social care Sajid Javid, secretary of state for housing Michael Gove, and others, Mordaunt has not resigned, and continues to serve in Johnson's caretaker government.

A YouGov poll released conducted Tuesday and Wednesday and surveying 879 rank and file Conservative Party members found Mordaunt in the lead among candidates Tories would like to see replace Johnson, with 27 percent saying they would back her, 15 percent saying they would support ex-minister of state for local government Kemi Badenoch, and 13 percent each saying they would back Sunak or Truss, with no one else crossing the 10 percent threshold.

Dozens of high profile and lesser known ministers, aides and other officials rushed to quit Johnson's government last week as the series of scandals swirling around the prime minister for months finally caught up with him. Johnson narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in parliament last month over the coronavirus 'partygate' row - centered around revelations that his staff held multiple social and holiday gatherings in 2020 and 2021 as ordinary Britons were put under harsh lockdowns.

Other scandals, including allegations of cronyism in the form of PPE contracts to his friends during the pandemic, further hit at Johnson's authority. Johnson Deputy Whip Chris Pincher's alleged groping of two men at a private members' club in early July, and revelations that the prime minister knew of and even joked about Pincher's 'hands-on' nature when he appointed him, proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back for his government, sparking the wave of resignations which culminated in his announcement that he too would quit last Thursday.