The home secretary is one of the most experienced ministers, who has very strong support from the wider party.
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Following his fourth place, Mr Crabb could come under pressure to stand down.
“It’s now up to the Conservative Party and indeed the wider country to assess the skills, the abilities and the leadership potential of these two candidates”.
Two Conservative Party activists said some of May’s supporters were encouraging lawmakers who back the interior minister to vote for Gove, cutting out the increasingly popular Leadsom from the race.
The Justice Secretary’s campaign manager Nick Boles was forced into a humiliating apology after being caught pushing pro-May MPs to vote tactically to ensure Mr Gove made the final two.
Speaking to former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind while still wearing a live Sky News mic at the broadcaster’s Westminster studio, Mr Clarke described the situation as a “fiasco”.
Theresa May took a storming lead, with the backing of 165 supporters.
Gove wrote: “I did not campaign for Britain to leave the European Union as an end in itself”. She also said she expected the economy to grow after Brexit.
Polls suggest that Theresa May is the clear front-runner in the increasingly bitter race to become the next leader of the Conservative Party, but the betting market also serves as another key indicator.
“Michael Gove is the best we have for negotiating anything but that’s where his talents lie, not as leader of the country”.
Mrs May campaigned for the United Kingdom to remain in the EU.
“The contest that our party respondents want is a two-horse race – a final of Leadsom v May, who between them mop up 75 per cent of the vote”, writes ConservativeHome editor Paul Goodman. In a letter to Lord Feldman he writes: “Given the national urgency in making this final leadership decision, I believe that these hustings should be held over a three week period, during which time members can cast their ballots”.
It is this “deep compassion” combined with “real world experience” working in the finance sector for 25 years, that Mr Duncan Smith says will make her a “Prime Minister able to inspire the British people”. “I do think emails or texts like that are failing to smell the coffee, wake up and recognise we want to come back together, and govern as a Conservative Party, that we can get on with each other and do not want to spend the whole time stabbing each other in the back”. “He’s a showman and I couldn’t see him as Prime Minister”.
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Leadsom, 53, who had a 25 year career in financial services before turning to politics but has never served in cabinet, also received a boost on Monday when former London Mayor and leading Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson gave her his backing.
