The lesser-known Leadsom was, to some observers, a surprise second-place finisher with 84 votes, easily beating out Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who garnered 46 votes and who was therefore eliminated from the race.
Advertisement
In a vote of Conservative MPs on Thursday, May received 199 nods.
Conservative members will now decide the winning candidate and the result is due on 9 September.
Thirty-seven per cent said the new Prime Minister should be someone who backed the Brexit campaign and eight per cent said they did not know.
Leadsom is relatively unknown compared to May, and she’s never served in the cabinet, which is normally a prerequisite for holding the office of prime minister, according to the Washington Post.
“I want to offer particular congratulations to Andrea Leadsom on her stunning achievement”.
‘They tend to be Brexiteers, they tend to be more right wing.
Her plain-spoken style and opposition to the European Union made her popular with the party’s grass-roots members, who are older and more Euro-skeptic.
Nearly half of those surveyed said Mrs May should be the next PM, while Andrea Leadsom’s support sat on 25%, with a further 28% saying they did not know who to choose.
May is now appointed as the Home Secretary and has been a Conservative MP since 1997. I’m really confident that she’s in tune with the members.
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.
Speaking after the results were announced, Mrs May said she had secured support from all wings of the Conservative Party and promised to bring the Tories together. May and Leadsom will now campaign throughout the country among the party’s 150,000 members.
“I have said all along that this election needs to be a proper contest”.
Mr Gove, who won the backing of two fewer MPs than in the first round of voting, said he was “naturally disappointed” that his leadership bid had failed but welcomed the fact that the next PM would be a woman.
Leadsom also received the backing of many MPs who, unlike May, had supported the campaign for Britain to leave the EU.
May, 59, pitches herself as the Conservatives’ unity candidate.
Advertisement
She told her supporters she was the voice of optimism and would “banish pessimism” in the wake of the Brexit vote. “But the British people have made a very clear decision to take a different path and as such I think the country requires fresh leadership to take it in this direction”.
