Investing.com – Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, favourite to succeed Theresa May as U.K. Prime Minister, topped the leader-board once again by securing 126 votes from the 313 Conservative lawmakers participating in the ballot.
Johnson received the lion's share of the vote on Thursday last week with 114 votes.
Following the ballot, five hopefuls remained in the running to become the next Conservative Party leader. Leadership contender Dominic Raab was eliminated from the contest after failing to win enough support from parliamentary colleagues to see him through to the next round.
Former Brexit Secretary Raab was eliminated with just 30 votes.
In the second ballot in the leadership contest, candidates needed to receive more than 33 votes from fellow Tory MPs. If all candidates received more than 32 votes, the one with the fewest would have been eliminated.
Gaining the biggest number of votes between rounds was outsider Rory Stewart, who scooped up 37 votes compared to just 19 in the first round. According to some bookies, the International Development Secretary is now second favourite in the running to become Britain's next PM.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt pulled in 46 votes, while Environment Secretary Michael Gove received 41. Hunt also came second to Johnson in the first round of voting. Home Secretary Sajid Javid picked up 33 votes, the minimum number to stay in the race.
Former Mayor of London Boris Johnson got a boost on Monday in his campaign to succeed Theresa May as one of his former rivals and EU supporter Matt Hancock backed him. Health Secretary Hancock pulled out of the race on Friday.
Support from former critics such as Hancock rattled markets as Johnson, the face of the official campaign to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum, has hinted he is an advocate of a ‘hard’ Brexit.
Former Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom, who was eliminated in the first round of voting, has also announced she is backing Johnson’s campaign.
Johnson is rumoured to have received support from the European Research Group, a Brexiteer faction of the Conservative Party, on the understanding that he will ‘deliver Brexit’ by the 31 October, with or without a deal.
Several more rounds of voting will take place before the candidates are whittled down to just two. It is expected that the winner will be announced in the week beginning 22 July.
The pound was unmoved ahead of a debate amongst leadership contenders later on Tuesday.
At 17:20 GMT, shortly after the results from the second round of voting, GBP/USD was 1.2551. Sterling hit five-and-a-half-month lows of 1.2514 overnight due to Brexit worries.
Following Draghi’s dovish comments at the ECB Forum in Sintra earlier in the session, the single currency fell from five-month highs against the pound. At 17:20 GMT, EUR/GBP was 0.8923.
The remaining five candidates will take part in a televised debate at 19:00 GMT on Tuesday evening.