James Cleverly tops latest round of Tory leadership votes as Tom Tugendhat eliminated

8 October 2024, 15:35 | Updated: 8 October 2024, 16:17

James Cleverly overtook Robert Jenrick to top the latest round of voting by MPs in the Tory leadership contest as Tom Tugendhat was knocked out of the race.

Mr Tugendhat came fourth in the latest round of votes, as James Cleverly shot into the lead.

Tugendhat received just 20 votes, 19 less than Cleverly.

Previous frontrunner Robert Jenrick came in second with 31 votes while Kemi Badenoch placed third with 30.

In a tweet, Mr Tugendhat thanked those who supported his campaign.

He wrote: "Your energy, your ideas and your support have shown a vision of what our party could become.

"Our campaign has ended but our commitment to our country continues."

Meanwhile, Mr Cleverly wrote: "I’m grateful to all my colleagues for their support today, and I’m pleased to be through to the next round.

"The job’s not finished.

"I’m excited to keep spreading our positive Conservative message."

The next round of votes, due at the same time tomorrow, will see the final two candidates confirmed.

Ms Badenoch claimed her support is "surging" agead of tomorrow's vote.

In a tweet she said: "I'm pleased to have increased support and grateful to all of my colleagues who voted for me. This is a very tight race and I'll continue fighting for every vote.

"It's also clear from every independent poll and survey, the support from members for my Renewal2030 campaign is surging."

Speaking to LBC last night, Robert Jenrick insisted that he was "defending UK special forces" after claiming they "kill rather than capture" terrorists due to EU law.

Robert Jenrick insists his claims that UK forces 'kill rather capture' terrorist suspects was to 'defend them'

Speaking to LBC's Iain Dale, Mr Jenrick said that military planners need "complete freedom" to take action without being limited by EU law.

"The point is this: the military planners who are determining how we intervene are having their discretion fettered by our human rights apparatus," he said.

"So instead of sending members of the special forces to detain an individual, from whom one might get intelligence, we are sending in a drone strike to take lethal action. That is not sensible."

He later added: "We've got to be giving our military planners complete freedom to take action within the law."