MEL STRIDE HAS been eliminated from the Conservative leadership contest as Robert Jenrick topped the second round of voting by MPs.

The second ballot in the Conservative leadership contest put Jenrick first with 33 votes, followed by Kemi Badenoch with 28.

James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat tied with 21 votes.

Mr Stride came in last with 16, knocking him out of the race.

Dame Priti Patel was eliminated in the first round of voting, in which Mr Jenrick also came out on top.

Compared to the first round, Ms Badenoch made the most gains, picking up six votes, while Mr Jenrick picked up five and Mr Tugendhat picked up four.

Despite securing the public endorsement of two of Dame Priti’s former backers, Mr Cleverly netted the same number of votes as he did in the first round.

Shadow home secretary Mr Cleverly said Mr Stride would “play a big part in our party’s future”, despite his elimination from the leadership race.

He said he was “proud to be through to the final four and grateful for the support of my Conservative colleagues”.

Mr Tugendhat said eliminated rival Mr Stride had run a “great campaign”.

Ms Badenoch said: “Thank you to every one of my colleagues who voted for me.

“I’m grateful to be in the top two and to have won the most new votes at this round.

“I’m also excited to take my campaign to conference. We need a leader who can cut through in opposition, and defeat Labour and Reform.

“Most importantly, we need someone with conviction, strength of purpose and the knowledge to rewire our broken political system.”

The remaining four candidates will put forward their leadership pitches at the Tory party conference in Birmingham.

Conservative MPs will carry out further rounds of voting to select two final candidates for the party’s grassroots to choose between, with the result of the members’ ballot announced on November 2.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Tories whittled down a list of five people who played key roles in 14 years of chaos and decline, to four people who played key roles in 14 years of chaos and decline.

“Their failure to take responsibility for the mess they made, demonstrates that none of these candidates are cut out for the job.

“They’ve learnt nothing from their mistakes, and as they continue to fight amongst themselves, Labour is getting on with the job of fixing the terrible inheritance they left behind.”