And then there were three. After the latest round of voting in the Tory leadership contest this afternoon, the Home Secretary Sajid Javid has been knocked out of the competition, leaving only Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt in the race to become the next prime minister.
Boris Johnson, unsurprisingly, came top of the poll – winning the backing of 157 of his parliamentary colleagues. Far behind him, but almost tied in second place were Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt on 61 and 59 votes respectively. Sajid Javid received only 34 votes, 4 down from the last round.
While it still seems almost certain that Boris will progress to the final stage of the leadership contest, the result means Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove will continue their fierce battle for second place behind him. Their fates will be decided at 6pm today, when the results of the fifth (and final) round of voting by Tory MPs is announced.
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