Tory leadership contest results: Theresa May wins first round by huge margin as Liam Fox eliminated

Next round of voting will place on Thursday and the following Tuesday until two candidates remain

Theresa May has a commanding lead in the race to occupy 10 Downing Street (Reuters)

Liam Fox has been eliminated from the Conservative Party leadership contest after failing to secure enough support from Tory MPs in the first round of voting.

Announcing the results of the first ballot in the leadership race Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs in Westminster, declared that the former Defence Secretary Mr Fox received just 16 votes.

Theresa May won the first round with an overwhelming result of 165 votes – followed by Andrea Leadsom on 66, Michael Gove on 48 and Stephen Crabb on 34.

Following her victory, Ms May said: "I am pleased with this result, and very grateful to my colleagues for their support. There is a big job before us: to unite our party and the country, to negotiate the best possible deal as we leave the EU, and to make Britain work for everyone.

"I am the only candidate capable of delivering these three things as Prime Minister, and tonight it is clear that I am also the only one capable of drawing support from the whole of the Conservative Party."

Shortly after the result, Mr Crabb announced he was withdrawing from the race and declared he will now be backing Ms May telling BBC news that she is the “only one candidate in a position to unite our party and lead a strong and cohesive government.”

Dr Fox has also declared his support for Ms May saying "experience matters".

Further rounds will take place on Thursday and the following Tuesday until only two contenders remain. The leader of the party – and Prime Minister – will be chosen from these two in a ballot of about 150,000 Conservative Party members, due to end on 9 September.

Independent declarations of support verified by the Press Association show Ms May, the longest serving Home Secretary in 100 years, who is hedging her bets as the “unity” candidate in the Tory leadership contest, has the backing of 130 MPs. She is comfortably ahead of Ms Leadsom, the junior energy minister and Leave campaigner, who has 40.

Speaking after the first round of voting, Mr Gove told Sky news he will remain in the race saying he has experience of "driving change" at the highest level of government.

He said: "Now that Britain has voted to leave, I think the country deserves to have a leader who believes in Britain outside the European Union and who also has experience at the highest level of government.

"I hope that in the days to come, I'll be able to convince my colleagues that I should be one of the candidates that Conservative Party members can choose from. I think they should have a choice between two candidates of experience, two candidates who have delivered in government departments."

The Justice Secretary added that he had "managed to bring people together across the Conservative Party behind a hopeful and optimistic message of change".

Earlier in the day Boris Johnson, the former London mayor who dramatically bowed out from the contest last week after his close ally Michael Gove decided to run for Downing Street, said he was backing Ms Leadsom for the top job because she was the best all-rounder.

“I think she can articulate what’s needed at the moment, which is a bit of an antidote to some of the gloom, and negativity, and misunderstanding about what the Brexit vote means. Because some people think that it’s the end of the world. It’s not. On the contrary, it’s a massive opportunity for this country,” he told Sky News.

Meanwhile, former Cabinet colleagues Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Ken Clarke – apparently unaware they were being filmed – were caught on camera ridiculing candidates in the party’s leadership contest. Mr Clarke said that Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary, was so right-wing he would likely start wars with “at least three countries” and that he did not really think Andrea Leadsom wanted to leave the EU.

Theresa May is a “bloody difficult woman”, Mr Clarke said before adding that Mr Gove had views so extreme that he had even caused neoconservative Liam Fox to “raise eyebrows” when exposed to them.

Asked whether David Cameron had found Ms May “difficult” to work with, the Prime Minister's official spokeswoman said later in the day: “He has found she has done a very good job as Home Secretary and they have worked very closely together on a whole range of issues.”

When reporters asked whether this amounted to an endorsement of Ms May as his successor, the spokeswoman added: “I think it reflects the working relationship between Prime Minister and Home Secretary. It's not that different to how he works with other Cabinet ministers.”

The results came after a new polls revealed Ms May had opened up a commanding lead in the contest, indicating she could win by 32 points. The Times/YouGov poll is also encouraging for Mrs Leadsom who, it suggests, would beat rivals Michael Gove and Stephen Crabb convincingly in a final round run-off.

However, Mrs May is, by a significant margin, the candidate to beat. She is regarded as the strongest leader, the most unifying candidate, the candidate with the best economic understanding and the best media performer by Conservative party members.