Nigerian-born Briton, Kemi Badenoch, who has been nursing the ambition of becoming the prime Minister of the United Kingdom has crashed out of the race in the fourth round.
Badenoch’s ouster from the race leaves the three remaining candidates Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak fighting to make the last two for the contest.
Ms. Badenoch was eliminated from the race with 59 votes, while Rishi Sunak had the highest vote of 118, followed by Penny Mordaunt with 92 votes, and Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary with 86 votes on the fourth ballot.
Sunak remained in the lead with 118 votes, just short of the 120 needed to secure a spot in the last two. Mordaunt, the international trade minister, kept her second spot with 92 votes, up from 82, but Truss, the foreign secretary, closed the gap by picking up 15 extra votes to reach 86.
The three contenders will be pruned down to two on Wednesday afternoon, and Tory party members’ final decision on who will become prime minister will be announced on 5 September.
Despite her crashing out of the race, Ms. Badenoch, the former equalities minister, who mounted an impressive and insurgent campaign, was praised for her vision and ‘honest politics’, which saw her perform much more strongly than expected.
Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch is a British politician who has served as a Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden since 2017. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Minister of State for Local Government, Faith and Communities and Minister of State for Equalities from 2021 to 2022.
