Tory leadership vote result - live: Boris Johnson tops poll despite being branded 'racist' and 'not fit for office' as Stewart eliminated
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Your support makes all the difference.Rory Stewart was eliminated from the Tory leadership race after the third round of voting by Conservative MPs on Wednesday, as Boris Johnson again topped the ballot with 143 votes.
Jeremy Hunt came second with 54 votes, narrowly ahead of Michael Gove with 51, while Sajid Javid picked up five extra votes to reach 38.
Mr Johnson was earlier called “racist” and “not fit for office” during PMQs by Ian Blackford, the SNP leader in the Commons.
Senior Labour MPs put pressure on leader Jeremy Corbyn to back a second Brexit referendum at a shadow cabinet meeting.
Nigel Farage, meanwhile, claimed the Brexit Party could form an electoral pact with a Johnson-led Conservative Party to deliver a no deal exit.
See how the day unfolded below:
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Jeremy Corbyn has said Labour would put any Brexit deal to a public vote and that a second referendum would need to contain "real choices" for both Leave and Remain voters.
The Labour leader told the shadow cabinet this afternoon:
We have committed to respecting the result of the referendum, and have strongly made the case for an alternative plan for Brexit as the only serious deal that could potentially command the support of the House.
At conference last year we passed our policy, the members' policy. Over the past nine months, I have stuck faithfully to it.
A no-deal Brexit would plunge us into the worst excesses of disaster capitalism and trash our economy on the back of fantasy Tory trade deals or worse, very real and very damaging trade deals with Donald Trump, opening up our NHS to American companies.
I have already made the case, on the media and in Dublin, that it is now right to demand that any deal is put to a public vote. That is in line with our conference policy which agreed a public vote would be an option.
A ballot paper would need to contain real choices for both Leave and Remain voters. This will of course depend on Parliament. I want to hear your views, I will be hearing trade union views next week, and then I want to set out our views to the public.
Rory Stewart has admitted his performance in last night's Tory leadership debate could have dented his support among MPs.
Speaking outside the voting room, he said: "Could do, could do.
"Rather weirdly the YouGov polls suggest I won it overwhelmingly with the public.
The problem is you're sitting on a stage and when four-fifths are looking at you as if you're crazy... You begin to think 'I'm losing this, I'm not convincing anybody.
But the YouGov poll ... shows the people watching it on television were actually agreeing with me but I'm not feeling it at all in the studio."
Pro-Remain Labour MPs have said today's shadow cabinet meeting "did not move the party's Brexit position" and Jeremy Corbyn has instead merely "promised further consultation".
Rachael Maskell, who is part of the Love Socialism Hate Brexit group of MPs, urged the party to "present a clear alternative to transform Britian and Europe" and be "energetic and enthusiastic about promoting it".
She added: "By late July, we will have an extreme right wing Tory Prime Minister, pursuing a hard Brexit that will wreck our communities and undermine our rights.
"Only a radical Labour message can keep us in Europe, and only by opposing Brexit can we be true to our values and set out a radical vision to transform the country. Our position must be crystal clear before Boris Johnson walks into Number 10.”
Former defence secretary Gavin Williamson has just said “never comment on numbers” after he left the voting room.
The Labour leadership do not appear to be any closer a firm position on Brexit after today’s shadow cabinet meeting.
While Conservative Party tries to decide on the UK’s next leader, EU leaders are preparing for a showdown on climate change at a summit in Brussels that could see the entire bloc adopt a target of going carbon neutral by 2050.
Jon Stone has all the details.
As Rory Stewart awaits his fate in the Tory leadership vote, he may be interested in knowing the majority of the British people believe male MPs should always wear a tie.
Labour MP Rachael Maskell, a supporter of the Love Socialism, Hate Brexit group, demanded clarity on the party’s position and said: “By late July, we will have an extreme right-wing Tory prime minister, pursuing a hard Brexit that will wreck our communities and undermine our rights.
“As a party, we need to present a clear alternative to transform Britain and Europe, and we need to be energetic and enthusiastic about promoting it.
“Only a radical Labour message can keep us in Europe, and only by opposing Brexit can we be true to our values and set out a radical vision to transform the country. Our position must be crystal clear before Boris Johnson walks into Number 10.”
Could Rory Stewart be eliminated after today’s votes? The candidate said earlier he would be “right on the edge” of the contest after the results are announced. Some Tory MPs don’t feel he is sufficiently thug-like, apparently.
Former shadow cabinet minister Ian Murray, a supporter of the People’s Vote campaign for another referendum, said the Labour leadership was getting closer to becoming the Remain party.
“Step by step the Labour leadership are coming closer to the increasingly clear view of the party’s supporters, voters and members, that we must have a People’s Vote on any Brexit outcome and that staying in the European Union must be an option in that final say referendum.”
He said that if a referendum happened it was “impossible to imagine” that Labour would not campaign for a remain vote. “Some unelected advisers around Jeremy Corbyn may wish to resist that, but the party's grassroots will not let that happen,” he said.
“The resistance of that, increasingly isolated, group to letting Labour speak from the heart on this issue is still doing our party electoral damage and must come to an end.”
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