The momentum in the race to be the next Conservative leader remains with Penny Mordaunt – but Betfred has Foreign Secretary Liz Truss coming up on the rails.
Mordaunt has drifted slightly to EVS as Truss has come in to 9/4 – while the one-time outright favourite Rishi Sunak is now third favourite at 10/3.
Trade Secretary Mordaunt picked up 16 extra votes in the latest round of voting amongst Conservative MPs, while Truss gathered the support of 14 more – while Sunak increased his total by 13.
The jockeying for position comes ahead of the three TV debates – and after Betfred reported two £2,000 bets in Greater Manchester on Truss and outsider Kemi Badenoch (20/1).
Badenoch remains in the five-way race for the post with 49 MP votes in total, while Tom Tugendhat (66/1) is struggling at the back of the field on just 32 having lost five of his original supporters.
Suella Braverman, who is now reported to be backing right-winger Truss, was eliminated in the last round.
The blue-on-blue attacks have been ongoing ever since Boris Johnson announced he’s quitting and opened the contest to find his successor as leader of the party and therefore Prime Minister.
Mordaunt’s emergence as front-runner has surprised pundits and leadership rivals after she came out well on top in a YouGov poll amongst grassroots Tory supporters.
As it is the latter who will ultimately decide who will lead the country by September 5, choosing between the final two candidates, Mordaunt has found herself subject to most of the attacks on her character as she is the one to beat.
