Saturday, February 15

Day: June 13, 2019

Johnson storms first-round voting
Featured, United Kingdom

Johnson storms first-round voting

    Boris Johnson is on course for Number 10 after securing a commanding victory in the first round of MPs’ votes for the new Conservative leader and prime minister, beating his nearest rival Jeremy Hunt by 71 votes. Mr Johnson scooped 114 votes, against Mr Hunt’s 43 and Michael Gove‘s 37. The former foreign secretary’s tally took him beyond the 105 required in the final round of MPs votes next week in order to progress to the postal ballot of 160,000 party members which will select the final winner. Outsiders Esther McVey, Andrea Leadsom and Mark Harper were knocked out after failing to meet the threshold of 17 votes required to progress to the next round of voting on Tuesday, but international development secretary Rory Stewart, who has ruled out a no-deal Brexit, scr...