Tom Tugendhat has become the latest MP to be knocked out in the Tory leadership race to become the next Prime Minister.

The backbench MP was eliminated in the third vote in the contest.

There are now four remaining candidates who will go forward to the next vote tomorrow.

By Wednesday evening there will be only two remaining who will go forward to the final vote of party members with the result to be announced on September 5.

Sir Graham Brady, chair of the  Conservative backbenchers 1922 Committee, announced the result in a committee room in the House of Commons.

Rishi Sunak, former Chancellor, was again the candidate with the most votes, gaining the backing of 115 MPs up 14 from the last round.

He fell five short of the 120 votes needed to be guaranteed to be in the final two.

Penny Mordaunt, trade minister, was second and Liz Truss, Foreign Secretary, third with 82 and 71 votes, respectively.

Kemi Badenoch, local government minister, was fourth with 58 votes.

Tugendhat, the only backbencher left in the race is eliminated.

The latest round took place after the candidates faced off in two TV debates over the weekend.

A third debate scheduled for this evening on Sky News was axed after Sunak and Truss withdrew amid concerns the debates were harming the party’s image as candidates criticize each other.

The clashed over tax again and on managing the economy after the pandemic.

Sunak was the only candidate not to promise tax cuts immediately if he were to become Prime Minister and branded the others’ ideas of cutting income tax or corporation tax as “fairy tales”.

The result in full:

Kemi Badenoch 58

Penny Mordaunt 82

Rishi Sunak 115

Liz Truss 71

Tom Tugendhat 31