The hottest day in history may be over but the heat of the Conservative Party leadership battle intensified on Wednesday as Tory lawmakers cast their last round of votes to determine the final two candidates in the race to replace Boris Johnson as British Prime Minister. Rishi Sunak is holding firm as the frontrunner with 118 votes from Tuesday's secret ballot, but the fact that he gained just three votes from Tom Tugendhat's camp after the Tory backbencher's elimination has triggered intense speculation over tactical voting and even rigging.
While the British Indian former Chancellor is almost confirmed as one of the final two candidates, the battle for second spot between Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has become increasingly heated as questions arise over how the latter gained 15 more votes to hit 86. In contrast, Mordaunt increased her tally by 10 to hold on to second place with 92 votes.
"There is vote-rigging going on. There is no way that Truss picked up 15 votes from Tom Tugendhat. Someone is moving votes around,” one baffled Tory MP told The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
"Rishi only went up by three votes. That does not make any sense. They want Rishi versus Liz," the MP said. A leading pro-Sunak MP admitted to the newspaper that it was "entirely possible" that individual MPs had acted on their own initiative – but there was no central direction from Sunak. "It's entirely possible that individual members of Parliament have chosen to do things for their own outcomes, but as a campaign we've been very clear that we've encouraged every colleague that wants Rishi to win to vote for him. Colleagues have been lobbied very hard to vote for other people on a ‘lend me your vote' basis. We haven't been doing that," the MP said.
David Davis, a former Brexit minister and Mordaunt supporter, claimed that the Sunak camp had reallocated votes from Tugendhat to Truss to stop the trade minister reaching the final two as the Foreign Secretary's economic plans are seen as easier to counter for the former finance minister.
"Some [votes] went to Liz Truss. There's no doubt about it... I think about [10], maybe a few more, went to Rishi and then Rishi just reallocated some… He wants to fight Liz, because she's the person who will lose the debate with him,” Davis told LBC.