TheCable

Boris Johnson, former foreign secretary, edged out nine Tory members of parliaments (MPs) who competed in the first round of ballots in the race for a new Conservative party leader and the next prime minister.

The secret ballot poll, which held in the house of commons on Thursday, is to seek a replacement for outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May who resigned as leader of the party on June 7.

Aside Johnson other contenders are: Esther McVey, MP for Tatton; Michael Gove, environment secretary; Dominic Raab, former Brexit secretary; Jeremy Hunt, foreign secretary and Sajid Javid, home secretary.

Others are Matt Hancock, Rory Stewart, Andrea Leadsom and Mark Harper.

Three hundred and thirteen Conservative MPs are eligible to vote.

Johnson, who launched his leadership campaign on Wednesday, is regarded as the frontrunner in the contest after securing 114 Tory colleagues votes.

Johnson was closely followed by Hunt with 43 votes and Gove with 37 votes.

Leadsom, McVey, Harper have been eliminated from the race as the rule states that any of the 10 candidates who fail to secure at least 17 votes in the first round will be eliminated from the contest.

Further ballots are scheduled to hold next week.

The winner of the contest is expected to be announced on July 22.