Badenoch expected to have secured cabinet position after being knocked out of Tory leadership race

NIGERIAN- born British Conservative Member of Parliament Kemi Badenoch has been eliminated from the Tory Party leadership race and bid to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister after coming fourth with 59 votes in the latest round of the contest.

Badenoch, 42, a former levelling up minister, trailed behind favourite former chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak, who scored 118 votes; international trade minister,  Penny Mordaunt with 92 votes and foreign secretary Liz Truss, who got 86 votes. These three will now go into the final round that will whittle the race down to two.

Once there are only two contestants remaining, the nominations will be put to party members but Ms Badenoch will certainly not be on that ballot now. Tomorrow, MPs will decide which two candidates will go to the general ballot, with the final result due on September 5.

Whoever wins that final vote will become prime minister. Ms Truss has narrowed the gap on Ms Mordaunt, who appeared to capture the imagination of party members in the early stages of the contest but has lost some momentum in recent days amid a barrage of hostile briefings about issues including her view on trans rights.

Ms Mordaunt was up 10 votes from the previous round on Tuesday but Ms Truss’s team will hope to win over many of Ms Badenoch’s supporters, potentially allowing her to move into second place in Wednesday’s ballot. Meanwhile, one Sunak-supporting MP denied the former chancellor’s camp would be disappointed at having not reached the 120-vote threshold on Tuesday.

He said: “Every ballot we’ve gone in the right direction, so we need to make those arguments now with the 59 colleagues who voted for Kemi.”

Steve Baker, one of Ms Badenoch's supporters, said: "I would have thought that most of the people who are attracted to Kemi, they’ll mostly not be attracted to Penny. So obviously I’m hopeful that Liz will be able to attract their support but one must never take anything for granted.”

Ms Badenoch, who has never held a cabinet post, styled herself as a straight-talking reformer and won the support of Michael Gove, who was sacked by Mr Johnson as he fought to save his collapsing government. By making it to the final four she is likely to have secured a senior role in the government of the new prime minister, whoever wins.