Jeremy Hunt will go head to head with Boris Johnson in the battle to become the next UK Prime Minister.
In this afternoon’s House of Commons vote, former foreign-secretary Boris Johnson secured the majority of votes from his fellow Tory MPs, gaining 162 votes in total.
And in a tight tussle for second place, foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt edged out environment secretary Michael Gove by two votes to earn the right to battle it out with Boris for the top job.
Home secretary Sajid Javid came in fourth, losing out in an earlier ballot.
There have been whisperings inside Westminster that some of front-runner Johnson’s supporters were encouraged to vote tactically to ensure Gove did not make the final cut.
Borders MP John Lamont was the only Scottish Tory MP to publicly back Jeremy Hunt in the race, while Stirling MP Stephen Kerr campaigned for Michael Gove.
And only two Scottish Tories have backed Boris from the beginning.
A ballot will now be put to conservative party members across the UK, who ultimately have the final say.
According to parliamentary data, the Conservative and Unionist Party had around 124,000 members in March 2018.
In a country of more than 65 million people, it is only a minority of Brits who have a say in electing our next Prime-Minister.
Consequentially, there have also been wider calls for another general election, given that recent polling appears to put the Liberal Democrats and the Brexit Party ahead of the Conservatives.
Over the next month, Johnson and Hunt will travel up and down the nation in a series of debates to convince Conservative party members that they are the best candidate to lead the UK.
The final result is expected to be announced during the week beginning July 22.
Featured image credit: express.co.uk
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