Former home secretary James Cleverly is the surprise favourite going into the final round of MPs’ votes on Wednesday, with the backing of 39 MPs in total

Tom Tugendhat has become the latest candidate to be kicked out of the Tory leadership race. The former security minister came last in the third ballot of Conservative MPs. It leaves Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly and Kemi Badenoch fighting it out to make the final run-off,

James Cleverly became favourite to take over as Conservative Party leader on Tuesday after topping the latest round of voting by Tory MPs. Shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat was knocked out of the race to replace Rishi Sunak after being backed by just 20 Conservative MPs.