Rory Stewart dumped from Tory leadership contest leaving his four rivals to thrash it out
RENEGADE contender Rory Stewart was last night dramatically dumped from the Tory leadership contest — leaving his four rivals to thrash it out.
Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove and Sajid Javid will today face more ballots to whittle them down to two.
Mr Johnson — dubbed Boz Lightyear — is the clear favourite. But it remains to be seen who he’ll face off against.
In yesterday’s third knockout ballot, soft Brexiteer Mr Stewart came last by some way — shedding ten votes to end up with just 27.
Mr Johnson, who turned 55 yesterday, was gifted 143 votes — almost half of the Tory party’s 313 MPs.
Jeremy Hunt was second on 54 and Michael Gove third on 51. Home Secretary Sajid Javid once again defied bookies, who tipped him for the chop, to scoop 38.
The result tees up today’s Bloody Thursday, when two more ballots will weed down the four to two. The winning duo will then be sent out to the party’s 160,000 members for four weeks of nationwide hustings.
Something in the air must have made them sense that something was going in the other direction
Last night shell-shocked Mr Stewart, 46, said he had “absolutely no idea” how or why he lost the ten votes.
The Old Etonian told The Sun: “Something in the air must have made them sense that something was going in the other direction.”
Earlier in the day he had pointed the finger at the “dark arts” of Boris’s campaign boss and ex-chief whip Gavin Williamson. Mr Stewart’s dumping sparked a frenzied assault on his backers for their votes today.
'COMBINING FORCES'
He had already disclosed he was talking to Environment Secretary Gove about “combining forces”.
And some Tory MPs thought Stewart’s backers had drifted to Gove and Hunt — who put on ten and eight supporters respectively — following his poor performance in Tuesday night’s BBC debate.
Others suspected the votes that vanished were clandestine Boris backers, who only supported Mr Stewart in the previous round to knock out Dominic Raab on Tuesday.
One grandee MP told The Sun: “This is the game-playing round. Colleagues think up all sorts of schemes to fix the final two the way they want, and none of them rarely work.
“There really is no stupider clever electorate in the world.”
Last night Mr Stewart — who had even promised to make Southend a city to win over its Tory MP — tweeted he had been “moved” by the support he’d received.
Using the hashtag #RoryWalksOn, he said “I didn’t get enough MPs to believe today — but they will.” Asked what his departing message to Mr Johnson was, he said: “Be the best version of yourself.”
'IN IT TO WIN IT'
Meanwhile the BoJo juggernaut gained more speed as it picked up most of Mr Raab’s backers as well as the ex-Brexit Secretary himself.
Mr Raab said Boris was “the only candidate” who would take Britain out of the European Union by October 31.
Boris backer Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “He also has support right across the party, and unity is very important.”
The Times reported last night that Mr Javid is gunning to be Chancellor in Mr Johnson’s Cabinet — and he believes he stands a better chance if he goes down fighting.
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It is believed conversations between the two teams have already taken place.
Meanwhile Boris backers are running a campaign against Mr Gove, who has never been forgiven for betraying him in the 2016 leadership contest.
One said they wanted to “humiliate” Mr Gove, as well as beat him. Many blame him for ending the former Foreign Secretary’s chances of defeating Theresa May, the Daily Telegraph reported.
JAV GIRL PRIDE
SAJID Javid declared himself a winner last night — after a moving letter from his “proud” ten-year-old daughter.
The Home Secretary tweeted a note from Maya, the youngest of his four children. She wrote: “I am proud of you for doing so well (and) for coming this far to being Prime Minister. I love you so much and believe in you and you have to believe in yourself too.”
Mr Javid said: “A long but exciting day just got so much better.”
He said he was “in it to win it” and whatever happens in today’s final round “I will be happy”.
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