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Tory MPs will oust one of their colleagues from leadership contention tonight as the competition to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister heats up. They will have narrowed down the selection from five to four tonight after a disastrous televised debate on Sunday. The next few hours will see party members debate among themselves ahead of a vote this evening.<\/p>\n
The Conservative Party leadership contest is still in its early days, with nine early candidates whittled down to five.<\/p>\n
The next vote, still among Tory MPs only, will choose who of Tom Tugendhat, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch or Penny Mordaunt leaves next.<\/p>\n
Tonight’s proceedings commenced with a hustings at the 1922 Committee HQ in Parliament that serves as an opportunity for the remaining candidates to address their voters.<\/p>\n
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The hustings started today at 2pm and will last until this afternoon at 3.30pm.<\/p>\n
MPs will have time to consider each prospective leader’s pitch as ballots open from 5pm to 7pm tonight.<\/p>\n
Organisers then have an hour to count the votes before they announce the results at 8pm.<\/p>\n
The candidate with the fewest votes will have to exit the competition.<\/p>\n
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Tonight’s vote promises to add a sense of urgency to the Tory leadership race, as MPs must leave only two candidates by the end of this week.<\/p>\n
The fourth round of voting follows on July 19, reducing the candidates to three, before a final vote on Wednesday, July 20, delivers two.<\/p>\n
The final two will go head-to-head in a national ballot of all Conservative party members, less than 200,000 of whom will choose the next Prime Minister.<\/p>\n
That national ballot opens on July 22 and concludes when officials announce the results on September 5.<\/p>\n
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The voting public won’t have as much to consider at the end of this week, as the Conservative party has called off a scheduled debate today.<\/p>\n
The five candidates were due to appear on Sky, but Mr Sunak and Ms Truss’s teams announced they would pull out this afternoon.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Sky News said Conservative MPs “are said to be concerned about the damage the debates are doing to the image of the Conservative Party”.<\/p>\n
Ms Mordaunt’s campaign said media scrutiny was “important” during the contest as MPs are “picking the nation’s new PM”.<\/p>\n
Even with paid-up Conservative Party member votes, less than 0.3 percent of the UK electorate will choose the next Prime Minister.<\/p>\n
That fact has led to calls for the public to participate in a national vote that would give the new Prime Minister the mandate they require.<\/p>\n
But none of the remaining five has committed to calling a general election, stating they would take on the manifesto on which Mr Johnson was elected in 2019.<\/p>\n