Cleverly emerges as Tory leadership frontrunner after third round of voting | Conservative leadership

James Cleverly has come out on top in MPs' latest vote in the Conservative leadership contest, while Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick are battling to reach the bottom two.

In the third round of the MP election, Cleverly received 39 of the 120 votes, ahead of Jenrick with 30 and Kemi Badenoch with 29. Tom Stimmehat came fourth with 20 votes, making him the last candidate to be eliminated.

In the previous round, Cleverly had finished fourth with 21 votes, along with Stimmehat. It now appears almost certain that he will be placed in the bottom two in the final vote by MPs on Wednesday, with Tory members then choosing the winner in a vote. The result will be available on November 2nd.

Jenrick had the edge in the votes of the previous two MPs and was seen as a practical replacement for the last two. But after a disappointing Conservative conference last week, his support among MPs fell from 33 to 31.

Now he must desperately fight to regain momentum and oust Badenoch, who won two votes, as the right-wing Tory party's representative.

Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, seized on Jenrick's faltering campaign, with a spokesman saying: “There are three candidates left in this contest, two winning votes and one falling behind and losing support.” The right of the Conservative Party must now make a move to join forces around Kemi.”

However, a source in Jenrick's campaign team insisted he was “in the best position to make it to the final two”, highlighting the support he had received from MPs on the right and center of the party.

But with Tugendhat eliminated, Cleverly is the only remaining centrist and is expected to take over a number of supporters from the shadow security minister. With a total of 121 Tory MPs and Rishi Sunak saying he will not vote, just gaining two more MPs would guarantee Cleverly a place in the bottom two.

In a tweet following the result, Cleverly thanked colleagues for their support and added: “The work is not done. I look forward to continuing to spread our positive conservative message.”

virtuehat said: “To everyone who supported our campaign – thank you! Your energy, your ideas and your support have shown a vision of what our party could become. Our campaign is over, but our commitment to our country continues.”

In her message after the vote, Badenoch Stimmehat expressed her condolences and tried to reinforce the idea that she was the members' favorite, saying that “it is clear from every independent poll and survey that members support my Renewal campaign 2030” support “surging”.

With Cleverly so close to securing a place in the bottom two, there will be speculation that he could add some votes to Jenrick, who is considered more beatable than Badenoch in a head-to-head vote by party members. However, such moves are risky and it is likely that he will want to present himself to members as the clear choice of MP.

Cleverly's campaign gained significant momentum during the Conservative conference in Birmingham, where he was widely considered to have performed best at standard events such as a question-and-answer session before members and the candidates' final-day speeches.

In a further boost on Monday, Cleverly officially received his support from Mel Stride, the shadow work and pensions secretary who was eliminated in the previous round. Stride – who said the former home secretary was the “outstanding candidate” – had the support of 16 MPs, some of whom appeared to switch to Cleverly.

While Jenrick was a highly visible and forceful presence at the conference, promoting a consistent and strongly right-wing message, which included framing the idea of ​​withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights as “leave or remain”, he was given a somewhat poorer performance attributed as Cleverly.

Badenoch faced some difficulties at the conference, including condemning comments in a radio interview in which she said maternity pay was “excessive” and people should take “more personal responsibility”. She also told a fringe event that up to 10% of officers are so bad that they have to go to prison.

She must now try to persuade MPs to push her through to the membership vote, citing polls of party members that have tended to show her as their favorite, although numbers appear to have declined recently .