The eight MPs who passed in the first round are: • Rishi Sunak • Penny Mordaunt • Tom Tugendhat • Liz Truss • Suella Braverman • Jeremy Hunt • Kemi Badenoch • Nadhim Zahawi Politics Hub: Johnson loyalists to back ‘stop Rishi’ candidate. Shortly before the list was announced, Sajid Javid and Rehman Chishti announced they were standing down after failing to garner enough support from MPs. Earlier in the day Grant Shapps withdrew from the race and backed Mr Sunak. The leadership campaign officially began at 12 noon on Tuesday when nominations opened for a six-hour period, closing at 6pm. Several well-known MPs, including Mr Sunak, Mr Tugendhat and Ms Truss, had already thrown their hats in the ring and had more than the 20 backers needed to get into the first round before nominations opened. There were also some lesser-known names in the mix, such as former equalities minister Kemi Bandenokh and Rehman Chisti, the latter of whom neither publicly supported. A vote by other Tory MPs to narrow the first round candidates will take place on Wednesday, with candidates then needing 30 supporters – just under 10% of Tory MPs – to go through to the second round. Those candidates will face back-to-back rounds of voting starting Thursday — and likely through the end of next week — until just two remain. Around 160,000 Conservative Party members will then vote for one of the latter two and the result will be announced on September 5, when Boris Johnson will then hand over the keys to Number 10. Read more: Boris Johnson ‘determined to deliver’ winning 2019 election mandate in final weeks Three Tory MPs launched their campaigns on Tuesday morning – Rishi Sunak, Tom Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch – while Home Secretary Priti Patel ruled herself out. Tax cuts were high on most of their agendas, with Mr Tugendhat pledging to cut fuel duty by 10p and Mr Sunak promising to “bring the tax burden down” – after inflation has been brought down. But Ms Badenoch refused to enter a tax cut “bidding war” against the other candidates. Another ongoing issue is candidates insisting they want to run a clean campaign as they try to change the way the Conservative Party is perceived. Sunak said he would not “demonise” Johnson in his campaign, but admitted the pair often clashed as he insisted he had the support of “all wings of the party”. Johnson said he would not publicly endorse either candidate because he did not want to hurt his chances. Labor has been left fuming after the government refused to allow a motion of no confidence in both the government and the prime minister to be debated in the Commons tomorrow. He aimed to oust Johnson from Number 10 immediately. The government said it was not a “valuable use of parliamentary time” as Mr Johnson has already resigned and the leadership race is ongoing. Sky News is hosting a live televised debate with the candidates vying to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and therefore prime minister, and you could be in the virtual audience. The debate will take place on Monday 18 July hosted by Sky News presenter Kay Burley. If you would like to join the virtual audience and have the chance to ask a question, please email [email protected]
