Sunak and Truss through to final round as Mordaunt eliminated

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have made it to the final round in the Conservative Party leadership election, after Penny Mordaunt was eliminated.

Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee, announced that Sunak again topped the poll of Conservative MPs, with 137 votes, while Truss received 113 and Mordaunt 105.

The two remaining candidates will now face the wider Conservative Party in an election, after a series of hustings throughout August.

The new Conservative Party leader and prime minister will be announced on 5 September.

At today’s PMQs, Sir Keir Starmer took aim at the prospective Prime Ministers, who backed out of a scheduled debate on Sky news, saying: “They organised the TV debates because they thought it’d be a great chance to hear from the candidates first hand - but then disaster struck - because the public heard from the candidates first hand.”

The Labour leader then asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson: “Does the Prime Minister agree with the words of his former chancellor that plans put forward by the other candidates, in his words, are ‘nothing more than the fantasy economics of unfunded spending promises’?”

To which Johnson replied: “They know all about fantasy economics, as they’ve already committed to £94bn of extra tax and spending, which every household in this country would have to pay for to the tune of £1,200.

“It’s thanks to the chancellor’s, and this government’s, management of the economy that we had growth in this May of 0.5 per cent.”

Johnson added that he is “proud to be leaving office with unemployment at or near a 50-year low”.