Amber Rudd has called on Boris Johnson to respond to concerns that his campaign is encouraging supporters to lend votes to Jeremy Hunt in an attempt to eliminate Michael Gove from the Conservative leadership race.

The work and pensions secretary, who is backing Hunt to be the next prime minister, said rumours that Johnson’s campaign would use tactical voting to seek revenge on Gove for derailing his leadership campaign in 2016 were “discrediting” the system to select a party leader.

Her comments came on the day when all 313 Tory MPs whittle down Johnson, Hunt, Gove and Sajid Javid to two candidates. The first ballot result is expected at 1pm and the second at around 6pm. The final two candidates will go on to the ballot paper to Conservative members.

Quick guide Tory leadership contenders Show Hide Jeremy Hunt His style is notably technocratic, with few rhetorical flourishes and an emphasis on his consensual approach and long record as a minister, notably during more than five years as health secretary, a traditional graveyard of ministerial careers. Hunt’s attempts to talk up a backstory as an 'underestimated' entrepreneur can fall flat given he is also the son of an admiral and was head boy at Charterhouse. Overall, Hunt’s approach can seem uninspiring and hard to pin down in terms of core beliefs, hence the 'Theresa in trousers' nickname among some Tory MPs – one that is more catchy than accurate (since May herself often wears trousers). In the final round of MP voting Hunt edged out Michael Gove, 77 votes to 75. Boris Johnson Johnson’s progress to Downing Street appeared unstoppable even before an overwhelming victory in the first round of voting among MPs. Most of his colleagues believe it is now all but inevitable that he will be Britain’s next prime minister. His well-disciplined campaign team will continue with their strategy of subjecting him to minimal media exposure, though once the field is narrowed down to two, the final pair will appear in more than a dozen head-to-head hustings for Tory members. The team’s main aim is simply to keep heads down and avoid Johnson creating headlines for the wrong reasons. It may not have worked. Johnson came first in the final round of MP voting with 160 votes.



Rudd told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I find all this conversation about lending votes rather discrediting of the system. Each MP has a really important responsibility to think about who can deliver us from this real difficulty that we’re in and who will be a prime minister.

“I would really call on Boris himself to repudiate the information that’s coming out, friends of Boris saying this, saying one thing. This is a serious moment, we don’t need that sort of game-playing going on in parliament.”

Responding to a question about whether Johnson would prefer to face Hunt in the final two instead of Gove, Rudd said the foreign secretary was confident about seeing off his predecessor to become prime minister.

She said: “Well, they’re wrong because I know that Jeremy Hunt will make the right case, he’ll be persuasive, and he’ll be able to show that he has the experience and the skills to become the prime minister. So if that’s their view, I say bring it on. I’m longing to see Jeremy in the finals to be able to make the case as the future prime minister.”

Speaking an hour before the opening of voting, Hunt said the country was looking at Johnson and asking: “Is there a better alternative?”

The foreign secretary said he was “confident but not overconfident” of advancing to the members’ vote. “I need my supporters to come and say, ‘Yes, we can do better than Boris Johnson as the next prime minister of our country, we can choose someone who the EU are actually going to talk to and get that better Brexit deal,’” he said.

“May the best man win, and that’s going to be me.”

Quick guide Tory party leadership contest Show Hide What happens next in the Tory party leadership race? As she announced on 24 May, Theresa May stepped down formally as Conservative leader on Friday 7 June, although she remains in place as prime minister until her successor is chosen. In a Conservative leadership contest MPs hold a series of votes, in order to narrow down the initially crowded field to two leadership hopefuls, who go to a postal ballot of members.

How does the voting work? MPs choose one candidate, in a secret ballot held in a committee room in the House of Commons. The votes are tallied and the results announced on the same day. In the first round any candidate who won the support of less than 17 MPs was eliminated. In the second round anybody reaching less than 33 votes was eliminated. In subsequent rounds the bottom placed contender drops out until there are only two left. The party membership then chooses between them. When will the results be announced?

The postal ballot of members has begun, and the Tory party says it will announce the new prime minister on 23 July.. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Andrea Jenkyns, a Brexiter MP who is backing Johnson, told ITV’s Peston programme on Wednesday night that there would be “some poetic justice” if the bitter rivals were in the final runoff. She said that although there were “tricks going on” in the contest, Johnson’s campaign was not to blame.

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Gove said: “I do think I would be a better prime minister than Boris.” But, he added, “he has formidable qualities and he is a big part of the Conservative party’s and the country’s future”. While Johnson had “communication skills aplenty”, the environment secretary told LBC that he believed he would be better equipped than any of the other candidates to take Jeremy Corbyn “to the cleaners” with a “forensic” examination of his policies.

Rory Stewart was eliminated in the third round of voting on Wednesday as Johnson substantially increased his tally of supporters to 143, compared with Hunt on 54 and Gove on 51.

Javid, who leapfrogged Stewart to stay in the race, is expected to be knocked out in the first round of voting on Thursday. The contest between Gove and Hunt to make the ballot paper for Conservative members will depend on their ability to win support from MPs who backed eliminated candidates.