Theresa May will face Andrea Leadsom in the final round of voting to become the new Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister.
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Leadsom, who was considered a rank outsider when the contest began, beat the justice secretary, Michael Gove, in the latest vote of MPs.
May and Leadsom will campaign around the country to win votes from party members, and the new leader will be unveiled September 9. 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.
“I’ve won votes from Conservative MPs from across the party, from left and right, Leavers and Remainers, from MPs the length and breadth of the country”.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who is backing Mrs Leadsom, said she had “steel” but within the “velvet glove of compassion”.
Of the 330 Tory MPs, 329 voted in today’s ballot meaning Mr Cameron is likely to have again been the only Conservative MP not to have cast a vote.
Baker said” “I expect that whoever wins this contest, I will expect to row in behind the victor and I would expect every colleague in Parliament to reciprocate. “This vote shows that the Conservative Party can come together, and that under my leadership, it will”.
He said: “For the second time in history, the Conservatives will have a female Prime Minister, proving that we are not just the greatest, but the most progressive party in Britain”.
Gove meanwhile said that he is “naturally disappointed” to have to drop out of the running for prime minister, but praised the remaining contenders as “formidable politicians”.
“We need to get on with it”, she said.
Thatcher, who served as Britain’s leader from 1979 to 1990, was the country’s first and only female PM.
The head of the European Council says the European Union must wait for the British government to decide whether to leave the bloc or stay in it.
The victor of the final two will be announced on 9 September.
Mr Gove, who abandoned Mr Johnson three hours before nominations closed to launch his own leadership bid, did not immediately endorse either Ms May or Ms Leadsom.
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The photograph triggered a flurry of speculation the note was part of Andrea Leadsom’s leadership campaign as the note also said “Boris to travel around the country for her”.
