The revelation was made by LBC radio’s political commentator Theo Usherwood on Nigel Farage’s LBC show just minutes after Rory Stewart was dropped from the competition in a shock twist. Mr Usherwood said: “Team Boris wants to get rid of Michael Gove. And I think we could see that move tomorrow lunchtime.

“This is where tactical voting is going to start in earnest. “So they already got rid of one that they wanted to get rid of which was Rory Stewart. “They now need to target Gove. “And given the numbers involved it doesn’t require that much of a shift given that we can expect some of the Rory Stewart voters to go to Sajid Javid and others will go to Jeremy Hunt.

“We could easily expect it would take seven or eight Boris Johnson supporters to simply go and tick the box for Sajid Javid, with the uplift from a few of Rory Stewart’s supporters. “And he could supplant Michael Gove tomorrow lunchtime in third place. “And if that happens that will be a victory for Boris.

Rory Stewart's hopes of becoming the next prime minister were dashed after his support collapsed in the third round of voting by Tory MPs. The International Development Secretary secured just 27 votes - down 10 from Tuesday's second ballot - as Boris Johnson again took a commanding lead in the race to Number 10. Former foreign secretary Mr Johnson appears assured of being one of the two candidates who will face a vote by 160,000 Tory members to choose the next party leader and prime minister after extending his lead over nearest rival Jeremy Hunt. Mr Johnson received 143 votes, up from 126 on Tuesday, with Mr Hunt on 54, up from 46. Michael Gove was in third place, up 10 from 41 to 51 votes, while Sajid Javid picked up five extra votes to reach 38. </s> Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt will battle to become the next Prime Minister after Michael Gove was eliminated from the Tory leadership contest.

In the final round of voting by MPs Mr Gove was narrowly pipped to the post by Mr Hunt, who won two votes more than his rival and his place on the final ballot with Mr Johnson.

The race now enters its final stage before the party selects who will be its next leader and the country’s next Prime Minister.

What has happened so far?

The race to select the next Prime Minister officially launched on 10 June, after Theresa May stood down as Conservative party leader the week earlier.

Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Dominic Raab, Andrea Leadsom, Matt Hancock, Esther McVey, Sajid Javid, Rory Stewart and Mark Harper all accrued enough supporters to be able to enter the race.

Mrs Leadsom, Ms McVey and Mr Harper were eliminated in the first ballot after failing to win enough support to meet the threshold required.

And Matt Hancock, who came sixth in the first vote, announced he was standing down and backing Mr Johnson.

In the second ballot, Mr Raab became the next candidate to be eliminated and he also threw his weight behind Mr Johnson.

On Wednesday, International Development Secretary Rory Stewart scored the lowest number of votes in the third ballot and was also knocked out the race.

And Sajid Javid, Home Secretary, became the seventh candidate to exit the contest after winning the fewest votes in the Thursday lunchtime ballot.

What happens now?

Now that there are only two contenders remaining, Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) will begin the membership hustings process for party members to decide between the final two candidates.

Work will be under way immediately and the party will aim for the hustings to take place in all 12 regions of the UK over the course of the next four weeks.

During this time there are more live TV debates planned on BBC and Sky.

The BBC announced plans to hold a Question Time special with Fiona Bruce as well as a one-to-one interview with the final candidates and presenter Andrew Neil.

Sky News also announced plans for a head-to-head leadership debate between the final two in front of an audience of Conservative Party members.

When will we know who is Prime Minister?

During the month of hustings, in which the candidates will seek to persuade party members to back them, the choice will be put to a postal ballot.

This will mean that the entire party membership of 160,000 people will have a vote to decide which candidate they prefer.

The results will be counted and a new leader will be announced during the week beginning 22 July.

After this point, the victor will visit the Queen, who will ask them to form a Government and will formally replace Mrs May as Prime Minister. </s> Boris Johnson's supporters are plotting to 'humiliate' Michael Gove and derail his leadership campaign today.

Mr Gove has never been forgiven for betraying Mr Johnson in the 2016 leadership contest.

And now MPs loyal to Mr Johnson are plotting the environment secretary's downfall, with one Johnson supporter saying they want him 'humiliated,' as reported by The Telegraph.

It comes as Bojo's team have also approached Sajid Javid - who came fourth in the ballot yesterday - to become chancellor, according to allies of the home secretary.

Yesterday, maverick leadership hopeful Rory Stewart was dramatically booted from the contest after coming last with just 27 votes - down from 37 on Monday - leaving four hopefuls left to fight it out.

Mr Johnson picked up support from Dominic Raab, who was evicted in the previous round, to increase his tally again from 126 to 143 - tightening his grip on the keys to Downing Street.

While Hunt came second with 54 votes, Gove came third with 51, and Javid on 38.

Finishing a disappointing fourth, Mr Javid insisted last night he was still in the race to become Prime Minister.

But Mr Johnson's team have already approached the home secretary and offered 'all sorts of jobs up to that of chancellor', if he drops out the race and backs Boris, as reported by The Times.

The remaining candidates not named Johnson are now desperately vying for Rory Stewart's backers, with pressure being put on them to support Mr Hunt to leave Mr Gove isolated.

Johnson supporters are thought to believe that facing Mr Hunt in the final two would be easier than taking on Mr Gove.

Many of Johnson's team have a 'visceral hatred' for the environment secretary and were directly accused by Mr Stewart of dirty tricks yesterday.

Speaking ahead of the vote, he told reporters the former defence secretary Gavin Williamson, who is organising Mr Johnson's campaign, was encouraging Johnson-supporting MPs to lend their votes to other candidates to manipulate the contest in a bid to determine who he would face in the final run-off.

He told reporters: 'There's also the dark arts. Gavin Williamson's proxy votes, which we don't know about.

'There are dark arts in politics and they're done with proxy votes, they're not done with someone saying 'would you please vote for this person'.'

Some Tory MPs last night said they suspected the Johnson camp of lending support to Mr Stewart in Tuesday's vote in order to get rid of Brexiteer rival Dominic Raab. </s> A secret vote among Tory lawmakers on Tuesday saw former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab drop out of the race for party leader and gaffe-prone Boris Johnson extend his lead over the remaining four rivals.

Johnson, who served as London mayor and foreign secretary in Theresa May's government, won 126 out 313 votes on Tuesday. This was 12 more votes than in the first poll held last Thursday.

The Tory lawmakers were set to hold several more votes to trim the candidate list down to two names. Some 160,000 members of the UK Conservative party will then decide on the next party leader, who is virtually guaranteed to become next prime minister.

Johnson has a strong public profile based on his career as a political columnist and his leading role in the 2016 campaign to leave the European Union. He also has deep ties inside the Tory party establishment as a son of a Conservative party politician and alumni of Eton and Oxford. Johnson attended the two elite schools together with former prime minister David Cameron.

Johnson's flamboyant personality has helped him shrug off multiple scandals during his time in the public eye, including lying about an extramarital affair, flippant descriptions of Africans, gays, and Muslim women, and jokes about "dead bodies" in Libya.

The 54-year-old politician said he was ready to take the UK out of the EU by October 31 deadline, whether or not a deal was in place. He also threatened to withhold €44 billion ($50 billion) in divorce payments that the UK owes the EU.

The latest score puts Johnson far ahead his closest rival, Jeremy Hunt. Hunt, who succeeded Johnson as foreign secretary and picked up 46 of Tory lawmakers' votes on Tuesday. He is followed by Environment Minister Michael Gove with 41, Internal Development Minister Rory Stewart with 37, and Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who only managed to meet the 33-vote threshold allowing him to continue the race.

Raab was eliminated after scoring only 30 votes.

Moderate Rory Stewart, who was dubbed as an outsider in the race, boosted his score by 18 votes compared to his last week's score. Stewart is the only candidate who is openly in favor of trying to save the divorce deal negotiated by the current prime minister Theresa May.

On Tuesday, he accused Johnson of peddling "fairy tales" about solving the Brexit issue.

A new prime minister should be voted in by the end of July.

Every evening, DW sends out a selection of the day's news and features. Sign up here. </s> • Sajid Javid was eliminated from the race to replace Theresa May as Conservative Party leader and prime minister.
• The home secretary fell out in the fourth round of voting after losing support from Conservative MPs.
• The race for second place behind Boris Johnson is now between Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove.

LONDON – Sajid Javid has been eliminated from the race to replace Theresa May as Conservative Party leader and prime minister.

The home secretary received fewer votes than his three rivals in a secret ballot on Thursday morning, with support consolidating around Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove, the two candidates who colleagues believe are best-placed to take on Boris Johnson in the final two.

Boris Johnson once again topped the poll, winning 157 votes from Conservative MPs, while Michael Gove jumped into sceond place with 61 votes. Hunt, who placed second in the first three rounds of voting, placed third with 59 votes.

Two of the votes were spoilt ballots.

A fourth and final round of voting will take place on Thursday evening, where the third-placed candidate will be knocked out. The result is due at around 18.15 GMT.

One from the remaining two candidates will then be selected as the next Conservative leader in July by the party’s 160,000-or-so members.

The winner will be announced on July 22.

Javid, who was seen as an outsider in the leadership race, played a prominent role in the contest, winning plaudits for making all other candidates agree to hold an independent inquiry into Islamophobia in the party if they become prime minister.

He was appointed as Home Secretary in 2018, and has also served as Business Secretary and Culture Secretary. </s> Sajid Javid has become the latest candidate to exit the Conservative party leadership race, with the home secretary coming last in the fourth round of voting by Tory MPs, behind Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt.

With all 313 MPs again casting votes, Mr Johnson was once more the clear winner, on 157 votes, with Mr Gove overtaking Nr Hunt into second place, with 61 votes to 59. Mr Javid was fourth on 34 votes. Two ballots were spoiled.

The focus now shifts to a fifth and final round of votes, in which the final two will be selected, who will be put to a vote of Conservative party members. In effect, this will be a run-off between Mr Gove and Mr Hunt for the right to face Mr Johnson. The result will come at 6pm.

The final two will then undertake a long series of hustings events with party members around the country before the winner takes over from Theresa May as Tory leader and prime minister on July 22nd.

The result is something of a blow for Mr Hunt, with backers of the foreign secretary seeking to immediately rally support for him. Penny Mordaunt, the defence secretary, said Mr Hunt being in the final two would avoid the drama of a new showdown between Mr Johnson and Mr Gove, who fell out over the 2016 leadership battle.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean the best entertainment for journalists, but for people who are going to focus on the issues, the policies, and set out a vision for the party,” she said.

A source in the Hunt camp said: “Boris and Michael are great candidates but we have seen their personal psychodrama before: it’s time to offer the country someone the EU will actually talk to.”

One of the challenges for Mr Johnson will be to convince Tory members he is serious about making Brexit happen on October 31st.

On Thursday Mr Johnson was formally endorsed by London’s Evening Standard, edited by the remain-backing former chancellor George Osborne, with an editorial in the newspaper predicting that Mr Johnson would end up persuading the Commons to “vote for a repacked version of the existing deal”.

In a verdict unlikely to go down well among hard Brexiters – or Mr Johnson’s camp – the editorial noted that he had pointedly not completely guaranteed an exit on October 31st, and was the candidate with the most room to manoeuvre.

Theresa May is travelling to Brussels for a European council summit and will miss the second vote. She has entrusted a proxy vote to Charles Walker, the acting co-chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories, which is organising the contest.

During the two-hour voting process, Mr Javid arrived with a series of MPs who have supported him and they posed for a photo in the corridor near committee room 14, where the voting took place. Mr Javid told reporters only that he was “hopeful” of progressing.

His exit from the race follows that of Rory Stewart, the international development minister, in the third round of voting on Wednesday. – Guardian </s> British Conservative party leadership and prime minister contender Boris Johnson leaves his home in south London, Thursday June 20, 2019. The race to become Britain’s next prime minister is down to the final four on Wednesday, as Boris Johnson stretched his lead among Conservative lawmakers and upstart Rory Stewart was eliminated from the contest. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

LONDON (AP) — The Latest on choosing Britain’s next prime minister (all times local):

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt will compete to become Britain’s next prime minister in a runoff vote by members of the governing Conservative Party.

Johnson, a former U.K. foreign secretary, and Hunt, who holds that office now, are the last candidates standing after a series of elimination votes by Conservative lawmakers. Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Environment Secretary Michael Gove were culled from the race on Thursday.

Johnson got 160 of the votes cast by 313 Tory lawmakers in the final round, and is strong favorite to win the ballot of some 160,000 party members.

Hunt, who got 77 votes, will seek to halt Johnson’s momentum by picking away at Johnson’s plans for Brexit as the two speak to meetings of party members across the country.

The winner is due to be announced in late July, and will replace Theresa May as party leader and prime minister.

The contest to become Britain’s next prime minister is down to its final three candidates, with Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt chasing front-runner Boris Johnson for a spot in a deciding runoff.

Johnson gained 157 of 313 votes cast by Conservative lawmakers Thursday in their fourth round of voting. Gove received 61, leapfrogging Hunt, who has been in second place until now but got 59.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid came fourth with 34 votes and drops out.

A second vote Thursday will select the final two contenders, who will go to a by-mail ballot of all 160,000 Conservative Party members nationwide.

The winner is due to be announced in late July, and will replace Theresa May as party leader and prime minister.

Britain’s governing Conservatives were set to pick two candidates who will square off to become the country’s next prime minister.

Tory lawmakers will vote to eliminate two contenders from a four-strong field that includes ex-foreign minister and London mayor Boris Johnson, current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Home Secretary Sajid Javid.

Johnson has a commanding lead after three rounds of voting that cut the list from an initial 10 contenders. The three others are battling to join him in a runoff to be decided by 160,000 Conservative Party members nationwide.

All the candidates are vowing to lead Britain out of the European Union, a challenge that defeated outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May. She quit as Conservative leader earlier this month after failing to win Parliament’s backing for her Brexit deal.

The winner of the contest, due to be announced the week of July 22, will become Conservative leader and prime minister.

Follow AP’s full coverage of Brexit and the Conservative Party leadership race at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit </s> COMBO FILE – In this file four-photo combo image of various recent dates, showing the contenders still placed to become leader of the Conservative Party, Wednesday June 19, 2019, with from left: Michael Gove, Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid. Rory Stewart has dropped out of the contest Wednesday. Britain’s Conservative Party will continue to hold elimination votes until the final two contenders will be put to a vote of party members nationwide, with the winner due to replace Prime Minister Theresa May as party leader and prime minister. (AP FILE Photo combo)

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s next prime minister will be a man in his 50s who went to Oxford University — either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt, the two finalists selected Thursday in a race to lead the governing Conservative Party.

Johnson , a flamboyant former foreign secretary and ex-mayor of London, topped a ballot of 313 Conservative lawmakers with 160 votes and is runaway favorite to become the party’s next leader. He has led in all five voting rounds of a contest that began last week with 10 contenders.

Hunt , Britain’s current foreign secretary, came a distant second with 77 votes and will join Johnson in a runoff decided by 160,000 party members across Britain.

Johnson tweeted that he was honored to have gotten more than half the votes cast by party lawmakers. He said “I look forward to getting out across the U.K. and to set out my plan to deliver Brexit, unite our country, and create a brighter future for all of us.”

Hunt said on Twitter that he knew he was the underdog “but in politics surprises happen.”

The winner of the runoff, due to be announced the week of July 22, will become the new Conservative leader and the country’s next prime minister, replacing Theresa May.

Hunt edged out Environment Secretary Michael Gove, who got 75 votes, after Home Secretary Sajid Javid was eliminated earlier Thursday.

The result spares Johnson a showdown with Gove, his former ally-turned-archrival. The two men jointly led the “leave” campaign in Britain’s 2016 EU membership referendum, but Gove scuttled Johnson’s subsequent bid to become prime minister by deciding to run for the job himself, in a race ultimately won by May.

This time around, many in the party doubt that anyone can beat 55-year-old Johnson, a quick-witted, Latin-spouting extrovert admired for his ability to connect with voters, but mistrusted for his erratic performance in high office and his long record of inaccurate, misleading and sometimes offensive comments.

“Boris will say absolutely anything in order to please an audience,” historian Max Hastings told the BBC on Thursday. “Boris would have told the passengers on the Titanic that rescue was imminent.”

Hunt, who has been culture secretary and health secretary, is considered an experienced, competent minister, but unexciting. The 52-year-old politician bills himself as the “serious” candidate, in an implicit contrast to Johnson. He will try to halt Johnson’s momentum by picking away at his rival’s plans for Brexit as the two speak to party members at meetings across the country over the next few weeks.

Both Johnson and Hunt vow they will lead Britain out of the European Union, a challenge that defeated May. She quit as Conservative leader earlier this month after failing to win Parliament’s backing for her Brexit deal.

Brexit, originally scheduled to take place on March 29, has been postponed twice amid political deadlock in London.

Johnson has won backing from the party’s die-hard Brexiteers by insisting the U.K. must leave the bloc on the rescheduled date of Oct. 31, with or without a divorce deal to smooth the way.

He also is supported — somewhat paradoxically — by some Tory moderates who claim Johnson has the skills to unite the party and win back voters from rival parties on both the left and the right.

“The essence of Boris Johnson is a unifier,” he said.

Hunt backed the losing “remain” side in the referendum, a disadvantage in a party whose rank-and-file members are overwhelmingly pro-Brexit. Hunt now insists he is determined to go through with Brexit and says his past in business, running an educational publishing firm, gives him the experience to negotiate with the EU.

Hunt says he would seek another postponement of Brexit if that is needed to secure a deal, but only for a short time.

Critics say neither candidate has a realistic plan. The EU is adamant that it won’t reopen the Brexit agreement it struck with May’s government, which has been rejected three times by Britain’s Parliament.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Thursday that “the withdrawal agreement is not going to be reopened.”

He also said there was “enormous hostility to any further extension” of the Brexit deadline among the other 27 EU leaders.

Many economists and businesses warn that leaving the EU without a deal on divorce terms and future relations would cause economic turmoil as tariffs and other disruptions are imposed on trade between Britain and the EU.

U.K. Treasury chief Philip Hammond warned that a no-deal Brexit would put Britain’s prosperity at risk and leave the economy “permanently smaller.”

“The question to the candidates is not ‘What is your plan?’ but ‘What is your Plan B?'” Hammond said in extracts from a speech he was giving Thursday night.

Follow AP’s full coverage of Brexit and the Conservative Party leadership race at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit </s> Rory Stewart has crashed out of the Tory leadership debate after saying "dark arts" were being used against his campaign.

The MP for Penrith and the Border accused rivals of “dark arts” and even offered backers city status as he waged a dramatic fight to stay in the race.

The surprise star was forced to tour the Commons tearoom in a last-minute bid to scoop up support.

But it wasn't enough and he lost ten MPs overnight securing just 27 supporters.

Speaking after the result Mr Stewart said: "I am so moved and inspired by the support I have received over the last few weeks - it has given me a new faith in politics, a new belief in our country.

"I didn't get enough MPs to believe today - but they will. I remain deeply committed to you and to this country."

He also said he wouldn't endorse another candidate in the race - despite admitting being in talks with Michael Gove today.

With voting under way he told the Mirror he’d picked up just two of Dominic Raab ’s 30 supporters - including one in a text at 3am.

Meanwhile he feared he would lose one of his own backers after his performance in Tuesday’s BBC debate.

That left the risk that Sajid Javid - who finished just four MPs behind Mr Stewart on Tuesday - would overtake him and knock him out.

That proved the case as Mr Javid raced ahead of the MP.

With every vote crucial, Mr Stewart even offered to give Southend in Essex city status if he became Prime Minister.

He said he “certainly hoped” he’s won over Southend West MP David Amess - and even offered to do the same for other MPs.

He said: “More towns, definitely definitely. Anyone who wants to vote for me... anyone can be a city.”

It wasn’t clear if he was joking.

He said: ”There's the dark arts. Gavin Williamson’s proxy votes, which we don’t know about. He has people who have 5 or 10 proxy votes. So some very interesting things could happen. We don’t know."

Mr Williamson declined to comment on the "dark arts" claims.

Mr Stewart's outsider race for Number 10 has certainly brought colour to the Tory leadership race otherwise dominated by Boris Johnson.

The No 10 hopeful presented himself as an outsider who could both deliver Brexit and transform the Conservatives.

He has captured the public imagination by taking to the streets to talk to ordinary Britons rather than just his fellow Tory MPs.

And he has not shied away from comparisons with Jeremy Corbyn ’s campaigning style in his attempts to shake up his party.

Stewart has made honesty the central theme of his campaign and used bizarre analogies involving bins to attack his rivals on Brexit.

A maverick at heart, while Tory rivals confessed to taking cocaine and marijuana, he admitted to smoking opium at an Iranian wedding.

And while he insists he is Conservative to his core - during the Thatcher years he was a Labour member.

But in many ways, 46-year-old is as establishment as they come.

Born in Hong Kong, he grew up in the Far East and in a grand house in the Scottish Borders and was schooled at Eton, before doing his gap year in his father’s Black Watch regiment.

He studied politics, philosophy and economics at Balliol College in Oxford, and spent a summer tutoring Princes William and Harry, with whom he has kept in touch.

Stewart’s life however, took an adventurous twist when he became a diplomat himself, working in Indonesia and the Balkans after university, earning the nickname “Florence of Belgravia”.

Rumours have always swirled about whether he followed his father - who rose to number 2 in MI6 - into the intelligence services.

Although he denied this week he had ever been a spy, he has done little to discourage speculation by admitting if he had been, the law would prevent him answering the question honestly.

After leaving the Foreign Office in 2000 he went off grid and walked 6,000 miles across Asia before serving as a deputy governor in Iraq following the 2003 invasion and then teaming up with Prince Charles to set up a charity in Afghanistan.

There he met his American wife Shoshana Clark - at the time married to somebody else - and sold the rights to his life story to Brad Pitt, with Orlando Bloom lined up to play him.

The project reportedly stalled when he became a Tory MP.

His election for Penrith and The Border was not without controversy after he referred to his constituents as “primitives who hold up their trousers with string”.

As Prisons Minister, he promised to quit if he failed to reduce the level of drugs and violence in prison within a year - but was moved to International Development Secretary just before the time was up.

Stewart is described by his supporters as “a disruptor” - doing to Boris Johnson what he has done to others.

But that race is over.
Boris Johnson leads the second Tory MP leadership ballot. Dominic Raab is eliminated after coming in last. Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Sajid Javid, and Rory Stewart all advance to tomorrow's third round.