Rishi Sunak wins second round of voting to succeed Boris Johnson as UK PM

London, July 14: Former British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday won the second ballot in the Conservative leadership race with 101 votes in United Kingdom.

There are now five candidates left in the Tory leadership contest after Suella Braverman, the Indian-origin Attorney General in the fray, was knocked off the shortlist with the least votes at 27.

Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt (83 votes), Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (64 votes), former minister Kemi Badenoch (49 votes) and Tory backbencher Tom Tugendhat (32 votes) remain on the ballot in the narrowing race after the second round of votes were cast by lawmakers.

On Monday, the 1922 Committee laid out the timetable for the leadership race and confirmed that the new Prime Minister will be elected on September 5 and address their first Prime Minister's Questions in Parliament on September 7.

The next few rounds of voting among Conservative Party members of Parliament to whittle this list down to just two by next Thursday is scheduled for early next week.

The deadline to narrow down the shortlist to just two remaining candidates is July 21, when the 1922 Committee Chair Sir Graham Brady will also seek an assurance that both finalists will remain in the race to face the wider party membership ballot.

After the field is whittled down to the final two candidates, they will tour the UK for hustings to campaign the estimated 200,000 Tory party members who will then cast postal ballots for the winner based on a one member, one vote system. The candidate who receives the most votes will win the race and be declared the new Tory leader and UK prime minister.