Ms Mordaunt’s supporters were buoyed by the result, hailing her as a “fresh pair of hands” with the charisma to defeat Labor at the next general election.
The candidate who came second in the first round of voting in the Tory leadership race in 1997, 2001 and 2005 – Lord Hague, Sir Ian Duncan Smith and David Cameron respectively – then won.
In the next phase of her campaign on Thursday, Ms Mordaunt will draw on her military upbringing as she outlines her security and defense policy, claiming she has the clearest plan to keep Britain safe.
But she will come under fire from Ms Truss, who will hold a campaign launch event and argue Ms Mordaunt’s lack of economic experience would be a risk given the cost of living crisis.
On Wednesday, Ms Mordaunt overtook Mr Sunak in the bookmakers’ odds on who will become the next Tory leader, after a YouGov poll of party members showed she would get more than twice as many votes as the former chancellor.
While Mr. Sunak won Wednesday’s round of voting, securing nearly one in four of the vote in a field of eight candidates, his margin of victory suggests he does not have overwhelming support.
Two candidates were thrown out of the race after failing to get 30 votes: Jeremy Hunt, the former foreign secretary, and Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor.
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