THE next Tory leader will be a right-winger after James Cleverly crashed out of the race in a shock upset.
Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick will now fight for the Conservative crown in a ballot of around 150,000 party members.
The final round of MP voting saw Mr Cleverly plummet from first to third after a frantic 24 hours of campaigning and rumoured skulduggery.
He slipped from 39 supporters to 37, while Ms Badenoch and Mr Jenrick both leapfrogged him into the final two with 42 and 41 respectively.
Reacting to the surprise result, a visibly baffled Boris Johnson told The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots: “Well, strike me pink.”
But the former Tory PM remained tight-lipped about who he will support in the run-off.
With the centrist candidate eliminated, the bitter right-wing rivals will now slug it out ahead of the result on November 2.
Landing an early blow tonight, a Jenrick ally said a Badenoch leadership “risked being drawn into endless rabbit holes, Twitter spats and distractions”.
The former immigration minister’s team threw the gauntlet down to the shadow communities secretary to agree to multiple TV debates.
By Harry Cole, Political Editor
CONSERVATIVE MPs like to think they are the “most sophisticated electorate in the world” when it comes to crowning their leaders.
But something clearly went badly wrong yesterday in the wood-panelled committee room that hosted their latest conclave.
Bookies favourite James Cleverly came third in the race just 24 hours after soaring to first place.
The final two will now be a showdown between two candidates from the right of the party.
Cleverly had gained traction amongst softer Tories as a way of stopping exactly this scenario from taking place.
The affable centrist took it on the chin as cries of foul play echoed round the bowels of Parliament.
My hunch is too many Tory MPs thought he was secure enough getting into the final two that they could vote to try boot their least favoured candidate out of the race.
If you didn’t want Jenrick or Badenoch you could vote for the other in a bid to force them into third.
But its clearly backfired.
Just at the very moment the Tory party needs to unite and come together a whole fresh round of bad blood was created in an instant.
Over to the members… who gave the nation Liz Truss last time they were asked.
What could go wrong?
A source said he would face off against her “anytime, anyplace, anywhere.”
Immigration will be the flagship issue – with Mr Jenrick pushing a harder line on leaving the European Convention of Human Rights and an annual migration cap than his opponent.
Grassroots favourite Ms Badenoch is now the bookies’ choice, with Coral putting her odds-on at 4-7.
She went into today’s knockout insisting Tory members deserve a chance to vote for her and would revolt if MPs locked her off the ballot.
Her campaign spokesman said: “As the members’ choice throughout, she is the best placed to unite the parliamentary party and the Conservative Party membership.”
Nervous Mr Jenrick hammered dozens of MPs until the early hours and had a sleepless night with “lots of tossing and turning”.
THE fourth round results:
Kemi Badenoch: 42
Robert Jenrick: 41
James Cleverly: 37
How the contest works:
September 4: First round of Tory MP voting to eliminate one candidate
September 10: Second round of Tory MP voting to eliminate one candidate
September 29 – October 2: Final four candidates make their pitches at Conservative party conference in Birmingham
October 8: Third round of Tory MP voting to eliminate one candidate
October 9: Fourth round of Tory MP voting to eliminate one candidate. The final two go to a vote of the wider party membership.
November 2: New Tory leader announced
