As another candidate was eliminated to leave three contenders in the race to become the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, former finance minister Rishi Sunak again topped the latest vote.
With longshot candidate Kemi Badenoch trailing on 59 and therefore eliminated from the contest, Sunak garnered 118 votes.
In the second place was former defence minister Penny Mordaunt on 92 followed by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on 86.
The UK will either get its third female leader or its first British Asian prime minister as a result of the vote.
Sunak, who is all but guaranteed to make the final cut in Wednesday’s last round of voting by MPs, fell two votes short of the number needed to guarantee a place among the final two.
With Truss making up five votes on Mordaunt, the race to join him further tightened amid a YouGov poll showing the vote showed that Badenoch would beat the remaining candidates with the all-important members.
Before the governing party’s 200,000 members choose their new leader lawmakers will eliminate one more candidate from the race to replace Boris Johnson who fell from grace following a flurry of scandals.
After a damaging few days, Mordaunt trails Truss following criticism regarding her work ethic by her former boss David Frost.
(With inputs from agencies)
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