Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove are battling it out for a second place in the Tory leadership contest after Sajid Javid was eliminated in the latest round of voting at 1pm on Thursday, APA reports citing Reuters.
Three contenders are now in the running to replace Theresa May as prime minister when she steps down in late July — the latest casualty of the political chaos gripping the UK. Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London, is all but certain to be one of the two names who are put before 160,000 Conservative party members next month.
He picked up an overwhelming 157 votes in Thursday’s first round of voting, while Mr Hunt received 59 and Mr Gove received 61. Mr Hunt, the foreign secretary, and Mr Gove, the environment secretary, are now fighting for second place — with the result expected at about 6pm today. Mr Javid became the seventh out of 10 original candidates to be knocked out of the leadership race.
The home secretary, the son of Pakistani immigrants who went to a state school in Bristol — before going on to make a fortune as an investment banker — had run as an “outsider” in the contest.
He is expected to throw his support behind Mr Johnson and is now one of several candidates to become chancellor of the exchequer, arguably the most senior role in government after the PM. But he faces competition from Liz Truss, chief secretary to the Treasury, who has written Mr Johnson’s
Follow us on Telegram
t.me/apanewsaz
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on TikTok
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on X
