Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom will battle it out to become the next Conservative leader and first woman Prime Minister for 26 years.
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The ballot of Conservative MPs Thursday saw 199 votes for May, 84 for Leadsom, and 46 for Gove, thereby eliminating Gove from the race only one week after he entered it.
The contest now moves to its final stage with the Conservative Party’s 150,000-strong membership deciding between May, a Remain campaigner with a long track record in government, and Leadsom, a strong Brexit campaigner with a background in business by postal ballot.
Mrs Leadsom was a prominent Brexit-backer and hopes that her support for leaving the European Union will win her votes from Eurosceptics in the Tory grassroots. After the surprising result, current Prime Minister David Cameron, who wanted Britain to stay in the European Union, said he would step down to allow his replacement to complete the European Union separation process. The race for who will replace David Cameron as the U.K.’s leader narrowed to two names Thursday: Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom.
Mrs Leadsom (53) is more junior in the Conservative pecking order but became the rallying point for pro-“Brexit” MPs after Boris Johnson threw in the towel.
It will be only be the second time the Conservative Party has been led by a woman – with the first being Margaret Thatcher, who is also now the only woman to have served as United Kingdom prime minister.
The Defence Secretary has backed Theresa May as the Tory leadership candidate to keep Britain safe as prime minister.
Two days ago Mr Johnson announced that he would back Conservative Member of Parliament for South Northamptonshire Mrs Leadsom in the leadership contest therefore refusing to offer any loyalty or an olive branch to Mr Gove.
She said: “This vote shows the Tory party can come together and unite, and under my leadership it will”.
“I would like to say to anybody who thinks dirty tricks work: pack it up, because they make you look foolish, make the party look bad and we want a straight, robust contest between two women who know what they are about, who need to present themselves”.
Mrs May said she had won support from MPs from across the party “left and right, leavers and remainers”, while her supporters pointed out that Mrs Leadsom’s support was mainly drawn from the Brexit-backing wing.
May said: “I am delighted to have won so much support from my colleagues”.
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But it is already too late for people to get a vote by joining the party.
