For the former scenario to work, the right wing of the party and the Johnsonites would have to convince the supporters of the other four candidates to rally around two of them. With Tom Tugendhat leaking support, his supporters will be encouraged to vote for Penny Mordaunt as One Nation’s moderate candidate, rather than Mr Sunak, while the right of the party should coalesce around Liz Truss or Kemi Badenoch. If that tactic fails, MPs still have the power to choose the candidate most likely to beat Mr Sunak in the second round, which polls suggest will be Ms Mordant.
Stop Penny
Mr Sunak’s supporters are well aware of the danger Ms Mordaunt poses if she is his opponent in the bottom two. Their task is to make sure that anyone other than Ms Mordaunt ends up in conflict with him, and if he builds up a commanding lead in the next rounds of voting among MPs, he may be able to ‘borrow’ votes. to another candidate – such as Ms Truss or Ms Badenoch – instructing some of his supporters to vote for them to oust Ms Mordant. Ms Mordaunt, like Mr Sunak, is a moderate, meaning they both draw the same number of votes among MPs, and Mr Sunak will be hoping that if Tom Tugendhat is kicked out of the race, he will garner the most of his votes by convincing MPs that he is the best centrist candidate because of his greater experience. Meanwhile, Ms Truss’ supporters are already doing everything they can to discredit Ms Mordaud to ensure she is the foreign secretary who makes it to the bottom two.
