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UK Conservative Party starts choosing leader as pound sinks

Significantly, Mr Fox is a Leave campaigner who secured the support of 16 MPs, while Work and Pensions Secretary Crabb secured 34.

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Out of 330 Tory MPs, the Prime Minister and Witney MP was the only one not to cast his vote in the poll.

Ms May won 165 votes, leaving energy minister Andrea Leadsom a distant second with 66 votes.

Andrea Leadsom and Michael Gove are battling it out to join Home Secretary Theresa May on the ballot to become the next Conservative leader and PM.

Five candidates stood in the ballot, which saw disgraced former cabinet minister Liam Fox finish last and exit the race.

It is understood Mr Cameron did not vote on who should replace him as leader of both his party and the country.

‘I think, given the seriousness of the situation, the quicker we have a new and strong prime minister in place, the better, ‘ Crabb said.

British Home Secretary and leadership candidate for Britain’s ruling Conservative Party Theresa May. The remaining two will be put to a vote by all Conservative Party members.

She went on to claim that allegations about Ms Leadsom’s career in financial services had been exaggerated and are “totally bogus”.

Earlier in unguarded off-air comments caught on camera by Sky News, Mr Clarke described Mrs May to fellow Tory veteran Sir Malcolm Rifkind as a “bloody hard woman but you and I worked with Margaret Thatcher”.

She is still the favourite among the strongest pro-Brexit proponents, who worry that Theresa May – who campaigned for Remain – might not properly follow through on the referendum result.

Both Andrea Leadsom and Michael Gove campaigned for the United Kingdom to leave the EU. Immigration to the United Kingdom, for which she as Home Secretary is responsible, rose to 330,000 previous year.

Mrs May is Britain’s longest-serving home secretary in half a century, with a reputation for seriousness, hard work and avoiding the intrigue and treachery that has gripped her party.

Fox – who came third in the 2005 contest which Cameron won – said he was “disappointed” to be knocked out, but did not regret standing.

“I’ll be lending my wholehearted support to Theresa May”.

The two remaining candidates will face a ballot of party members with the victor announced on September 9. Johnson decided not to run when his former ally, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, withheld his support for Johnson and made a decision to try to become prime minister himself.

Three major political figures – Cameron, Johnson and U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage – have stepped aside rather than weather the political uncertainty of leadership and negotiation with the remaining 27 nations in the trading bloc.

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Before the vote, pro-Remain May came under fire for a TV interview in which she said the United Kingdom might eject European Union migrants if European Union countries do not allow British people to live and work on their home territories.

Stefan Rousseau  PA Wire

Andrea Leadsom launches her bid for the Tory leadership at The Reading Room in London