Johnson increases support in third round of contest

Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson yesterday cemented his position as the favourite to be the next prime minister after he increased his support in the third round of the Conservative Party leadership contest. Johnson got 143 out of 313 votes, with Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in second place with 54 votes and Environment Minister Michael Gove third with 51.
Interior Minister Sajid Javid was fourth with 38 votes.
International Development Minister Rory Stewart managed only 27 votes and was eliminated from the contest.
The remaining candidates will face two further votes today to whittle down the contest to the final two.
Then Conservative Party grassroots members will decide who will become leader, and Britain’s next prime minister, by the end of July.
“We’re gaining momentum,” said a source in the team running Johnson’s campaign.
His lead makes Johnson, whose career has been marked by gaffes and scandals, the all but inevitable choice to replace Prime Minister Theresa May and take on Britain’s so far ill-fated negotiations to leave the European Union.
The former foreign minister and London mayor has vowed to take Britain out of the EU by October 31 no matter what, raising the prospect of a disorderly, or so-called no-deal Brexit, which businesses say could harm the economy and investment.
Almost three years since Britain voted to leave the EU, the country, parliament and both main parties are deeply divided over how, when and even whether Brexit should happen.
With a simple message similar to the soundbites he used in the 2016 referendum campaign, Johnson, who unlike other politicians is better known by his first name, has managed to persuade much of his party that only he can rescue it from electoral disaster by delivering Brexit.
He won the support of one of earlier candidates, pro-Brexit lawmaker and former Brexit minister Dominic Raab, who said Johnson would take Britain out of the EU by the end of October.
“The only candidate who will now do this is Boris Johnson and so I’ll be supporting him to become our next prime minister,” Raab told the Evening Standard newspaper.
Rory Stewart, a contender to succeed British Prime Minister Theresa May, said he is in talks with his rival Michael Gove about teaming up to block Boris Johnson’s bid to become the country’s next leader.
Johnson, the frontrunner and a strong supporter of leaving the European Union, won by far the most votes in the second round of the contest to lead the Conservative Party on Tuesday.
Stewart told the BBC: “We are talking about combining forces because it is clear that Boris is going into the last round and the question is who is best placed to sit on a stage with Boris Johnson and who is best placed to ask the testing questions that need to be asked?”
Stewart, the international development minister, had the biggest increase in support from lawmakers in the second round of the contest after a campaign appealing to voters through social media and walking tours.