Sunak secured 101 votes in the Conservative MPs’ second ballot, leaving him with 19 of the 120 needed to make the final two-man shortlist, which will be presented to party members this summer. They will choose the next Tory leader and Prime Minister. Mordaud, the self-styled “fresh start” trade secretary after Boris Johnson, continued to make ground on the MPs’ ballot, coming second with 83 votes, ahead of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in third with 64. The vote resulted in the elimination of Suella Braverman, the pro-Brexit attorney general, leaving five candidates as the contest moves into its decisive phase. Sunak, Mordaunt and Truss will join Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister, and Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, in the final rounds of voting by MPs next week. All the candidates will take part in a televised Channel 4 debate on Friday, giving the public the first chance to see the contenders go head-to-head as they battle to succeed Johnson.

While most Tory MPs expect Sunak to make it to the second round, other candidates see Mordant as the man to stop. Mordaunt, a Brexiter with a socially liberal agenda, has presented herself as a patriot and a clear break from the Johnson era. He did not serve in the outgoing prime minister’s cabinet. Sunak’s allies accused Mordaunt, who is topping Tory campaigner polls, of being “financially intemperate”. Mordaunt’s team said its plans, including raising income tax thresholds in line with inflation, were fully costed. A member of the Truss team said the relatively inexperienced Mordaunt would need “stabilizers” if she was ever put in charge of the economy. Truss said categorically that she would be ready to be prime minister “from day one”. Lord David Frost, the former Brexit minister, said he had “serious reservations” about Mordaunt, who worked with him on EU issues in the Cabinet, in a powerful attack on her credibility. “I’m sorry to say that, I felt he didn’t know the detail that was necessary when we were in negotiations,” he told TalkTV. A member of Mordaunt’s team said: “Penny is determined to keep this competition clean.” Mordaunt confirmed her status as one of the most dynamic candidates, garnering the support of a further 16 MPs from the first round of voting on Wednesday. Truss won only 14 MPs. Braverman’s exit from the contest will begin horse-trading to secure her support and that of her allies, although few lawmakers are moving their support into a single bloc. Truss, who is vying for the Tory right vote, made an early appeal for the attorney general’s support. Her team said: “Swella Braverman has run a campaign of which she can be rightly proud.” Tugendhat faces possible expulsion in the third parliamentary vote on Monday after losing five votes between the first and second stages of the race. Another candidate will be disqualified in the next vote, but his campaign team insisted he was “in it to win”. A Tugendhat ally said his team hoped the televised Tory leadership debates, which also include ITV on Sunday and Sky on Monday, would raise his profile. The final list of the two candidates will be decided by MPs by Thursday. The choice of the new leader by members of the Conservative party will be announced on September 5.