Tory leadership: When is the vote and what happens next in Liz Truss vs Rishi Sunak contest?

Final two vying to be PM have made their case to party membership, which has now cast its votes

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have been battling it out to be the UK’s next prime minister throughout August, after making it through to the final stage of the Conservative Party leadership race.

The former chancellor and the foreign secretary finished in the top two places after five rounds of voting by Tory MP in late July, when Penny Mordaunt was eliminated after a bitterly fought contest.

So what has happened since?

The final two switched their focus away from Westminster and spent the last month “charming” Conservative Party members, who have the final say on who replaces Boris Johnson at No 10, a decision that will finally be announced today.

The candidates’ first chance to make their pitch to Tory members – and the wider public – came on Monday 25 July, when they sparred during a heated primetime BBC debate moderated by Sophie Raworth.

The duo clashed over their competing tax plans, with Mr Sunak saying Ms Truss risked inflicting “economic misery” through her lavish short-term borrowing pledges “on the country’s credit card” and were also at odds over their records on Brexit, Russia and China, the contest occasionally taking a personal turn that threatened to become toxic.

The two contenders have since faced off against each other at 12 Tory hustings events across the nation, the last of which took place on Wednesday 31 August in London.

Although the whole process has only just come to an end, many of the estimated 160,000 Tory members allowed to decide on the next PM are likely to have made their minds up much earlier.

Ballot papers began landing on Tory members’ doorsteps on Monday 1 August, with the party telling all paid-up supporters to expect them by Friday 5 August at the latest.

Tory members then had until 5pm on Friday (2 September) to send their ballot to the party, with the final result calculated over the weekend just passed and announced at 12.30pm on Monday 5 September.

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss square off in their first head-to-head TV debate (Reuters)

Once the winner is known, Mr Johnson will then be expected to head to Balmoral for formalities with the Queen on Tuesday 6 September, before either Mr Sunak or Ms Truss takes over that same day.

Both have ruled out an early general election.

The battle has exposed a clear rift between Ms Truss’s right-wing agenda of immediate tax cuts and confrontation with the EU and Mr Sunak’s more cautious approach, avoiding “fairytale” tax giveaways.

The ex-chancellor, the frontrunner throughout the parliamentary leg of the contest, received 137 votes in the final round of voting. Ms Truss won 113 votes, narrowly pushing Ms Mordaunt into third place on 105.

Bookmakers have since made Ms Truss the favourite to win the contest in the country, after polling of Tory members pointed to her being favoured over Mr Sunak.

A recent ConservativeHome online survey of the Tory grassroots also suggested that Ms Truss would beat Mr Sunak in a head-to-contest decided by members.

However, Mr Sunak set out his pitch to members in a brief video clip after making it through to the final two by claiming that he is “the only candidate” who can beat Sir Keir Starmer at the next general election.

Team Sunak pointed to polling that suggests he is more popular with the wider public and has the best chance of beating a resurgent Labour Party, a suggestion that should at least have given party members pause for thought given the hard winter that lies ahead.