Rival camps in UK leadership race aim fire at Penny Mordaunt

Rival Tory leadership candidates have turned their fire on Penny Mordaunt as she continues to gather momentum in an increasingly acrimonious race.

Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, is still the frontrunner, having secured 13 more votes in the second-round ballot on Thursday than he had the previous day, and Mordaunt pulled away from the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who added fewer MPs to her tally despite her high-profile launch earlier in the day.

At her campaign launch, Truss sought to portray herself as a candidate for change, despite having the backing of the Boris Johnson super-loyalists Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Sunak secured 101 votes in the second ballot of MPs, followed by Mordaunt, with 83, and Truss on 64.

Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister, and Tom Tugendhat also made it through the latest round, though the latter lost five supporters. Tugendhat, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said he would continue his campaign and take part in the televised debates starting on Friday.

The chair of the foreign affairs select committee told LBC Radio that he did not think the privatisation of Channel 4 was a good idea, and said he would not scrap the BBC licence fee.

Some MPs expect Tugendhat to withdraw before the third ballot on Monday afternoon, unless he believes his performance in the TV debates on Friday and Sunday has somehow catapulted him into contention.

There will be final rounds of voting next week to narrow the choice to two candidates. The Conservative party members will then decide on the winner.