By Ben Kerrigan-
Former equalities minister Ms Badenoch has been knocked out of the Conservative leadership race, and took to Twitter to thank her supporters, saying what her campaign had achieved in two weeks “demonstrates the level of support for our vision of change for our country and for the Conservative Party”.
Bedemoch had been hoping for the dream opportunity of becoming the prime minister of the Uk, and surprised many to get to the last four. Unfortunately her support base was not strong enough to pull her through against the opposition she faced in Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, and Liz Truss.
Ms Badenoch trailed behind her competitors by a long mile with 59 votes, whilst Penny Mordaunt had 92 votes, Rishi Sunak had 118 votes and Liz Truss had 86 votes.
Bedemoch who has been in politics for 17 years would have pulled off a major miracle to surpass any of the remaining three, but despite her strong academic background and high political ambitions, she has never been known in political circles to be a force to be reckoned with.
Badenoch joined the Conservative Party in 2005 at the age of 25 and contested the Dulwich and West Norwood constituency against Labour’s Tessa Jowell in 2010 and came third. She has been in the political game for a long time, which has brought her very far in her field, but not far enough to get to the top.
She hails from a solid background, her father being a GP and her mother is a professor of physiology, but she did not have enough to get any further in this race.
Her participation in the race for the Tory leadership will build her confidence for the future .
Foreign Secretary Ms Truss is now amassing her own supporters to become the next prime minister, with defence minister Leo Docherty expressing his support for her.
Trade Secretary Anne Marie-Trevelyan has also declared her support for Ms Truss.
The trade minister has expressed confidence of victory and says she was “excited to put my case to members across the country and win”.
Ms Mordaunt said her “friend” had “electrified the leadership contest with her fresh thinking and bold policies”, adding: “She and I both know that the old way of government isn’t working as it should. Voters want change and we owe it to them to offer a bold new vision for this country.”
Former Chancellor Mr Sunak is still in a dominant position in the race with 118 votes, and inches closer to becoming prime minister.
However, he has already received the support of at least one more MP, Sir Desmond Swayne, who has moved from supporting former candidate Suella Braverman and then Ms Badenoch, to backing Mr Sunak.
The three contenders will be whittled down to two on Wednesday afternoon, and Tory party members’ final decision on who will become prime minister will be announced on 5 September.