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Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick has topped the first round of voting in the Conservative leadership contest, as ex-home secretary Dame Priti Patel was knocked out of the race.
Patel’s exit from the race on Wednesday came after she secured the backing of just 14 Conservative MPs — half the 28 who supported Jenrick.
The ballot thinned the field from six to five contenders, leaving former business secretary Kemi Badenoch in second place with 22 votes, while former home secretary James Cleverly came third with 21.
Former security minister Tom Tugendhat came fourth, securing 17 votes and ex-pensions secretary Mel Stride was fifth, winning 16.
All but three of the 121 MPs in the parliamentary Tory party voted. Bob Blackman, chair of the 1922 committee overseeing the race, was among those who abstained.
The second round of voting will take place on Tuesday, after which the final four candidates will campaign at the party’s annual conference in Birmingham at the end of this month.
The field will then be reduced to two candidates, with Tory members voting in the run-off. The winner is set to be announced on November 2.
Allies of Jenrick said they believed he was well placed to pick up the votes of Patel’s supporters in the next round, and that he can extend his lead over his principal rival Badenoch.
While Badenoch has been the bookmakers’ favourite for next Tory leader so far, her backers insisted they were not disappointed she had come second in the first round.
She is more “centrist” than leading right-wing candidate Jenrick and has “the broadest base” of support in the contest, one campaign official said.
Various allies of candidates stepped up criticism of rival contenders and their campaigns following the ballot, but declined to put their names to the negative briefings.
Blackman has warned the competing camps not to launch attacks while the contest is taking place, promising a “yellow card” system to penalise foul play within the party.
Some Tory figures expressed surprise that Tugendhat had not commanded a higher level of support and predicted some of his backers could shift to Cleverly’s camp.
Tugendhat said it was a “privilege” to get through to the second round and insisted “only I can deliver the Conservative revolution that our party and our nation need”.
Stride, a close ally of former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak, is expected to contest the next round after coming just one vote behind Tugendhat, despite previous speculation he could drop out and throw his weight behind another campaign.
“Mel has over-performed where they all said he would be and he has momentum,” said one supporter of the centrist MP, who would offer his party a more managerial style of leadership.
A Labour spokesperson said the Tories had “successfully slimmed down the pool of contenders from six people who each played their hand in 14 years of chaos and decline, to five people who each played their hand in 14 years of chaos and decline”.