May wins first round of voting to choose UK PM

LONDON: Home secretary Theresa May dominated the first round of election for the next Conservative leader and prime minister on Tuesday evening, polling 165 votes

Published on: Jul 7, 2016, 07:13:02 IST

By Anonymous

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

LONDON: Home secretary Theresa May dominated the first round of election for the next Conservative leader and prime minister on Tuesday evening, polling 165 votes from 331 party MPs, placing her well ahead in the polls whose, the winner of which will be announced in early September.

Of the five candidates, Liam Fox polled the least votes – 16 – which eliminated him from the next round of polling to be held on Thursday. The candidate with the least number of votes in each round gets eliminated until there are two candidates left.

The winner among the final two candidates will be decided by members of the Conservative party through a postal ballot. The vacancy has been caused by David Cameron resigning as the party leader and prime minister after the June 23 Brexit vote.

Besides May, there were three candidates: Andrea Leadsom (who polled 66 votes), Michael Gove (48) and Stephen Crabb (34). But after the results were declared, Crabb pulled out from the election and extended his support to May.

Get the latest World News, breaking headlines and global updates from the US, UK, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia and other countries. Follow major international events on Hindustan Times.