May has won the first round of the contest to become the next leader of the Conservative Party and UK prime minister.
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In the UK, Theresa May has won the first round of the contest to become the next leader of the Conservative Party and the country’s next prime minister.
Theresa May: there will be no attempts to rejoin the EU and no second referendum. https://t.co/Ll8aR1BsA0 pic.twitter.com/JtulYkLYzE
— Financial Times (@FT) June 30, 2016
With 165 votes out of 329, the interior minister came out well in the lead after the first round of voting by Conservative MPs.
It means her leadership bid is supported by 50% of the parliamentary party.
Crabb out Tory leadership, a #Brexiteer now guaranteed to face T May in final
andrealeadsom</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NeverMay?src=hash">#NeverMay</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/timloughton">timloughton pic.twitter.com/77zpeLJeZy— David (@TweetFaceSocial) July 6, 2016
There is another female candidate in second place.
With 66 votes out of 329, Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom is supported by 20% of MPs.
BREAKING: Michael Gove has announced he is running for leader of the Tory party. https://t.co/zsvbVILf7P pic.twitter.com/onEbgyBWGP
— Financial Times (
FT) <a href="https://twitter.com/FT/status/748428209922899969">June 30, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> </p>Justice Minister Michael Gove got 48 votes - which gives him the support of 15% of the parliamentary party. <p> <blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"align="center"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LiamFox?src=hash">#LiamFox</a> eliminated from Tory leadership election after receiving fewest votes in round 1. Voting resumes Thursday.<a href="https://t.co/afI0kCgERu">https://t.co/afI0kCgERu</a></p>— ITN Source News (itnsourcenews) July 5, 2016
Former Defence Secretary Liam Fox came in last in fifth place and was eliminated.
Following tonight's vote I will not be putting my name forward for the next round of #toryleadership – and will be backing
TheresaMay2016</a></p>— Stephen Crabb (scrabbmp) July 5, 2016
Stephen Crabb came fourth and dropped out.
Both have since given their backing to Theresa May.
The results
329 of the party’s 330 MPs took part in a secret ballot on Tuesday 5 July.
Out of 329 votes cast:
- 165 – Theresa May (50%)
- 66 – Andrea Leadsom (20%)
- 48 – Michael Gove (15%)
- Fourth – Stephen Crabb (10%)
- Fifth – Liam Fox (5%) ### What happens now?
Further voting by MPs will narrow the field to two candidates.
There will then be a vote by all the members of the Conservative Party and the winner will be announced on 9 September.
Why are the Conservatives looking for a new leader?
Because David Cameron stepped down as prime minister after the UK decided to leave the EU in a recent referendum.