Tory leadership: mid-table clash is chance for Mordaunt’s stalled campaign

Tom Tugendhat's elimination leaves No 2 in race the only hopeful who is vaguely liberal and not tinged by Johnson's government

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Unusually for a political contest, the positions at the top and bottom of the vote tally were the least interesting aspect. Instead, the third round of MPs' choices for the candidate to take over from Boris Johnson was what you might call a mid-table clash. And here, things have got very interesting indeed.

One immediate point was that Penny Mordaunt's momentum has seemingly stalled. The trade minister, widely talked up as a potential favourite after taking second place in the initial two voting rounds, remained just behind Rishi Sunak, but with one fewer vote, down from 83 to 82.