Tory leadership: James Cleverly tops MP ballot as Tom Tugendhat knocked out

James Cleverly has topped the latest MP ballot to take over as Tory leader, with rival candidate Tom Tugendhat being eliminated from the race.

Former home and foreign secretary Cleverly received 39 votes from Tory MPs in the latest round of voting in the race to replace Rishi Sunak as leader.

He overtook fellow hopeful and former migration minister Robert Jenrick to top the ballot, who scored 31 votes from parliamentary colleagues.

Former business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch came in third with 30 votes.

While shadow security minister Tugendhat was knocked out of the contest with 20 votes out of a total of 120 votes cast.

Cleverly posted on X, formerly Twitter, and said: “I’m grateful to all my colleagues for their support today, and I’m pleased to be through to the next round. 

“The job’s not finished. I’m excited to keep spreading our positive Conservative message.”

It comes after Cleverly’s campaign saw a surge in momentum at last week’s Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, with the ex-cabinet minister building on his reputation as experienced and affable. 

His speech was the only one of the four which included an apology to voters for the loss of the 4 July election, and the argument to “be more normal” and, like his political hero Ronald Reagan, to “sell the benefits of Conservatism with a smile”.

Tugendhat thanked his supporters after Tuesday’s ballot. In his own X post, he said: “To everyone who backed our campaign – thank you!

“Your energy, your ideas and your support have shown a vision of what our party could become. Our campaign has ended but our commitment to our country continues.”

Voters who backed Tugendhat will now have until tomorrow to decide which of the remaining contenders to vote for in another knockout round which will see the field narrowed to two.

Party members will then have the final say over the winning candidate, with the winner of that vote being announced on 2 November.