Rishi Sunak retains lead in race to become UK PM as candidates' list narrows to four

Former British finance minister Rishi Sunak won the most support in the third round of voting to find a replacement for Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday.

“Rishi will make the best Prime Minister,” the former Health Secretary said in an interview with India Today. This is slowly proving to be true.

In the third round of the vote for the Tory leadership held on July 18, in which 357 MPs voted out of 358, Rishi Sunak retained his number 1 position and increased his vote share to 115 from 101 in round two. Trade Secretary, Penny Mordaunt was second at 82 votes, which was one less than the last round. In third place was foreign secretary Liz Truss, who increased her vote share to 71, and so did Kemi Badenoch, who received 58 votes compared to 49 in the last round.

It was Tom Tugendhat who had to bow out this time around with 31 votes. Tugendhat has not made it clear who he will support.

The four remaining candidates will enter the fourth round of voting on Tuesday and the last vote will be on Wednesday when two candidates will remain, who will then go canvassing for the support of Tory party members across the country.

There remains no doubt, especially after the two television debates, that one of the two remaining candidates will be Rishi Sunak. The question is who will be the second one?

There are many theories doing rounds. One, the current PM, Boris Johnson, is trying his very best to say that Sunak is not the one to replace him and so he is leaving no stones turned behind the scene. Second, at the last minute, two main candidates might join hands.

Third, at the Tory party level vote, Rishi Sunak might lose.