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Penny Mordaunt is \u201cconfident\u201d she will get the 100 nominations needed from Tory MPs to challenge Rishi Sunak for the Tory party leadership, her senior backer has said.<\/p>\n
Former minister Damian Green said Ms Mordaunt should hit the mark before Monday\u2019s 2pm deadline after Boris Johnson pulled out of the race on Sunday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cPenny is now looking to make sure she\u2019s above the 100 mark of nominations. Then we can proceed to what will be a civilised discussion between Penny and Rishi,\u201d he told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme.<\/p>\n
Ms Mordaunt has only 25 public backers so far, but Mr Green claimed she had support from a far higher number \u2013 insisting she has support from \u201call wings of the party\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re confident Penny will get above the 100 mark,\u201d Mr Green said. \u201cThere were a lot of people who weren\u2019t declaring publicly what they were doing. Penny\u2019s numbers are well above the published figures already, even without any of Boris supporters.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Ms Mordaunt falls short of the threshold by the 2pm deadline, or pulls out of the contest, Mr Sunak will take charge of the party without the need for any vote from Tory MPs or members.<\/p>\n
If she does hit the 100 threshold, Tory MPs will then formally vote for the two candidates this afternoon, with the result expected around 6pm.<\/p>\n
If both candidates still boast 100 backers after that, the contest is then handed over to Tory members, with online voting taking place until 11am on Friday.<\/p>\n
It comes after Mr Johnson dramatically withdrew from the race \u2013 having never officially entered, claiming he had the numbers, but admitting he could not unite his warring party.<\/p>\n
The former PM said there was a \u201cvery good chance\u201d he could have been back in No 10 by the end of the week if he had stood. But he added: \u201cYou can\u2019t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries \u2013 the uber Johnson loyalist \u2013 said it would now be \u201cimpossible\u201d to avoid a general election after her former boss withdrew.<\/p>\n
\u201cRishi and Penny, despite requests from Boris refused to unite which would have made governing utterly impossible. Penny actually asked him to step aside for her. It will now be impossible to avoid a GE,\u201d she tweeted.<\/p>\n
Attacking Mr Sunak further on LBC, Ms Dorries said: \u201cIf Rishi becomes automatically prime minister by Tuesday I think all hell will break loose,”<\/p>\n
Echoing arguments made by Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP, she said: \u201cHe\u2019s got no mandate from the people \u2026 He\u2019s got no mandate, whatsoever, to be prime minister of this country.”<\/p>\n
Ms Dorries added: \u201cHe lost the leadership election to Liz Truss, he hasn\u2019t won this one, he won\u2019t have gone to the members for the vote, and I think it will be very, very difficult for him to sustain the pressure not to go for a general election.”<\/p>\n
But Sunak backer Grant Shapps, currently the home secretary, insisted there was no need for a general election. \u201cWe elect a party and we elect individuals,\u201d he told Sky News.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Nadhim Zahawi \u2013 the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster \u2013 was mocked for switching his support to Mr Sunak, only minutes after a piece he wrote for The Telegraph backing \u201cBoris 2.0\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Johnson\u2019s former spokesman Will Walden says allies are \u201cangry\u201d at being marched up the hill for no good reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only people he has let down this time are the 50 or so colleagues who went public and went over the top for him \u2026 A lot of them clearly are angry at meaningless promises,\u201d he told LBC.<\/p>\n
Mr Johnson has \u201cgone with very little grace\u201d having \u201cfurther destabilised the party, albeit briefly\u201d, Mr Walden added \u2013 predicting that \u201che won\u2019t be back\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tory MP David Morris told the BBC: \u201cI was on the meeting with Boris and team not so long ago \u2013 within the past hour. And I have got to say that I was absolutely flabbergasted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just one of those occasions where you just don\u2019t believe it is really happening,\u201d the MP said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politicsGet our free Inside Politics email Penny Mordaunt is \u201cconfident\u201d she will get the 100 nominations needed from Tory MPs to challenge Rishi Sunak for the Tory party leadership, her senior backer has said. Former minister Damian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n