Rishi Sunak’s bid to become the next Conservative Party leader has received another major boost after health minister Steve Barclay expressed his support for the former chancellor.
Barclay said in a statement that he had “worked closely with him when I was Chief Secretary to the Treasury and I am convinced that he has all the right qualities to move our country forward”.
Mr Barclay, Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff at number 10, is the third senior minister to support Mr Sunak in the past 24 hours after Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, and Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, both resigned. testified.
Eight candidates are still in the running to replace Mr Johnson after the nominations closed last night: Mr Sunak, Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt, Jeremy Hunt, Nadhim Zahawi and Suella Braverman.
The first round of voting will take place this afternoon from 1.30 pm to 3.30 pm and the results will be announced at 5 pm. Any candidate who fails to secure the votes of 30 Tory MPs will be eliminated and the next round will take place tomorrow.
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