THERE are six Tory MPs left in the running to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister after the first ballot amongst the parliamentary party.

On Wednesday, there were eight MPs in the running after Sajid Javid, Grant Shapps and Rehman Chishti dropped out of the race on Tuesday.

The remaining 357 Tory MPs were given until 3.30pm on Wednesday afternoon to cast their vote in the first ballot, where contenders had to reach 30 votes in their favour or would drop out of the contest. 

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A third round is set to take place on Thursday as the Tories try to whittle the list down to the final two, before party members get the final say. The next PM will be announced on September 5, with Johnson reportedly set to formally stand down the next day. 

But for now, the remaining MPs who passed the threshold and move onto the next stage are:

Nadhim Zahawi (25) and Jeremy Hunt (18) did not reach the required vote threshold of 30 and are therefore out of the race. 

After reading out the results in alphabetical order by candidate, 1922 committee chairman Sir Graham Brady said: "Therefore under the rules that we agreed for this ballot two candidates will be eliminated - Jeremy Hunt and Nadhim Zahawi.

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"The others are all able to go forward to the second ballot which takes place tomorrow."

As it required 20 endorsements from fellow Tory MPs to make it on the shortlist, it appears that two of Hunt's backers did not follow through in the first ballot. 

He later tweeted: "A gentle word of advice to the remaining candidates: smears & attacks may bring short term tactical gain but always backfire long term.

“The nation is watching & they’ve had enough of our drama; be the broad church & unbeatable, election winning machine that our country deserves.”

The National: Hunt had the lowest number of votes out of all candidates and was kicked out of the raceHunt had the lowest number of votes out of all candidates and was kicked out of the race

The successful candidates were quick to react on social media as the results circulated.

Taking to Twitter, Tugendhat wrote: "This is a fantastic result.

"I’m delighted to be going through to the next round with the momentum we need to change this country for the better. Our country needs #ACleanStart."

Mordaunt meanwhile was quick to post a video accompanied by a celebration emoji and the hashtag PM4PM on the social media site. She said: "Thank you to everyone who has supported my campaign ,whether you came to my campaign launch this morning or whether you've interacted on our website.

"Thank you so much for all the wonderful messages, it means a great deal to me and my team."

A spokeswoman for Truss said: “Now is the time for colleagues to unite behind the candidate who will cut taxes, deliver the real economic change we need from day one and ensure Putin loses in Ukraine.

“Liz has the experience to deliver the benefits of Brexit from day one, grow our economy and support working families.”

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Zahawi backer Jonathan Gullis suggested after the results emerged that other campaigns should consider coalescing around a single standard-bearer for the party’s right wing.

Asked if he thought the loss was a career setback for the Chancellor, Gullis said: "I don’t think it’s a setback. At the end of the day he took a big step forward, a brave step forward.

“Many people, including myself, haven’t got the balls to be perfectly frank to put themselves forward. So I respect him massively for having a go at it.”

In a statement, Zahawi did not say who he would be backing for the rest of the contest.

He said: “I don’t intend to make any further intervention, but I wish all the candidates in the leadership contest the very best of luck.”