This means that five candidates are still competing for the position of Leader of the Opposition, and for leadership of a significantly weakened Conservative Parliament.
Priti Patel has become the first Conservative leader to withdraw from the race to succeed Rishi Sunak.
This means that five candidates are still competing for the position of Leader of the Opposition, and for leadership of a significantly weakened Conservative Parliament.
The favourite, Robert Jenrick, received 28 votes from Conservative MPs, followed by Kemi Badenoch with 22.
James Cleverley, another former Home Secretary, came in third with 21 votes.
Tom Stimhat, seen by many as the underdog, received just 17 votes, narrowly defeating Sunak’s ally Mel Stride, who many predicted would be eliminated in the first round but held on with 16 votes.
Mr Sunak, who was still Leader of the Opposition during the election process, decided to skip this first round of voting.
The next round will reduce the field to four next Tuesday.
The final candidates will explain their positions to Conservative members at the party conference in early October.
MPs will then hold a further vote to select two final candidates from which members can choose. The result will be announced on 2 November.
With MPs returning to Parliament, several candidates have officially begun their campaigning in recent days, with many having spent the summer making radio appearances, giving speeches and visiting Conservative activists around the country.
Ms Badenoch, seen as the favourite among bookmakers, is trying to position herself as a government leader further to the political right. At her launch event on Monday, she said the Conservatives “spoke on the right and governed on the left. They sounded like the Conservatives but acted like Labour.”
Mr Jenrick, seen by many as his closest rival for the job, has sought to focus his campaign on immigration, promising to introduce mandatory caps on the number of legal immigrants and to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.
Former security minister Stimhad has argued for a public reset based on restoring political integrity, but Mr Cleverley, the shadow home secretary, said his priorities as prime minister would be to strengthen protections for national security, reduce immigration and restore “faith in capitalism”.
Dame Pretty promised MPs she would get the Conservative party back on track and praised her ministerial record and her work on immigration and policing.
