Another Tory leadership contender drops out as party agrees new rules to cull no-hope candidates

Eight nominations, not two, needed to enter the race next week – to finish first phase by 20 June

Another Tory leadership contender has dropped out of the race for No 10, as the party agreed fast-track rules to weed out candidates with little chance of winning.

Kit Malthouse, a rank outsider, announced he was withdrawing from the contest because he was “a realist” about his chances – hours after James Cleverly made the same decision.

It reduced the number of candidates to 11, as the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives agreed they would need eight nominations – rather than just two – to enter the race next week.

They would then need to win 5 per cent of votes (16 MPs) to stay in after the first ballot and 10 per cent (32 MPs) to survive the second.

The plan has been hastily agreed to avoid multiple rounds of voting that had threatened to derail the intention to install a replacement for Theresa May by late July.

Ken Clarke, the former Chancellor, branded the bloated contest a “shambles", while Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader, had called for the rules to be changed to avoid “chaos”.

Now the new hurdles threaten to eject up to five more candidates when nominations close at 5pm next Monday.

Rory Stewart, the international development secretary, Esther McVey, the former work and pensions secretary, Andrea Leadsom, the former Commons leader, Mark Harper and Sam Gyimah – a Final Say supporter – are all struggling to gather support.

The six frontrunners, with enough declared supporters, are Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Sajid Javid and Matt Hancock – all men.

The first ballot, of the 313 Tory MPs, will take place on Thursday 13 June, with three further rounds scheduled for 18, 19 and 20 June, when the first phase is likely to conclude.

The party’s 160,000-strong membership will then make the choice between the two final candidates – revealing the new prime minister “in the week beginning Monday 22 July”.

Announcing his decision, Mr Malthouse – who put his name to the Brexit plan to remove the Irish backstop, rejected by the EU – said he had wanted to “lead a new generation of Conservatives”.

But he added he was “a realist and the last few days have demonstrated that there is an appetite for this contest to be over quickly and for the nation to have a new leader in place as soon as possible”.

Ms May stands down as leader of the Conservative Party on Friday, but will remain as prime minister until a successor is found at the end of July.

That person will then face an immediate vote-of-no-confidence in the Commons, with pressure on Tories fighting a no-deal Brexit not to support a new leader adopting that policy.