Competitors for the Tory crown have turned on each other as the race to be the next leader and prime minister gather pace.
To make it through to the final run-off today ahead of Tuesday’s TV debates, candidates need at least 33 votes from MPs and the contest is getting fierce.
International development secretary Rory Stewart has been stealing the limelight and has cast himself as the “stop Boris” candidate.
But his rivals have taken aim at him – and each other – in the final hours as MPs vote before the 6pm result.
Home secretary Sajid Javid accused Stewart of “effectively telling us that we should remain in the EU”.
He told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “I think he’s effectively telling us that we should remain in the EU and there is a small constituency amongst my colleagues that would rather remain than leave, and I think that is part of the challenge that we have to deal with.
“And so I think up to a point Rory can attract that support but it’s not going to get us any further.”
In comments aimed at Stewart and Johnson’s private education background, Javid added: “If we end up in a situation where the final two, three, four even are people from similar backgrounds with similar life experiences and it will look like a debate at the Oxford Union and I just don’t think that’s healthy for the Tory Party.”
Stewart retaliated to the claim he would push for Remain, saying on Twitter: “I’m sure Sajid didn’t mean that. He knows how fiercely and passionately we have both campaigned to get the withdrawal agreement through – and how although I – like he – voted Remain, we have fought together sincerely as fellow Cabinet Ministers for a moderate and pragmatic Brexit.”
Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove, who came second and third, respectively, in the first round, meanwhile, have been tearing chunks out of one another.
Gove, the environment secretary, accused his rivals of treating Brexit like an “unexploded bomb”.
He told the London Evening Standard: “One of the problems we have had is that some of those involved at the coal face of the Brexit negotiations have been people who have seen Brexit as a problem to be handled, a UXB to be defused, rather than a springboard to a better future.”
Gove, whose leadership campaign has been dogged by revelations about his past use of cocaine, hinted at a promotion for Stewart should he win, but said: “Rory got attention, but I would not necessarily say momentum.”
He also warned Stewart reaching the final two would mean members were faced with “two candidates who polarise”, he added: “One candidate who says they won’t serve under the other, and the same the other way round — that we don’t have the conversation that we need to have in the final stages … between candidates who believe in Brexit and who are capable of delivering it.”
Hunt, meanwhile, appeared to suggest Gove lacked experience and would not be trusted by Brussels to renegotiate Brexit.
He told the Standard: “I’ve not met a single European leader who doesn’t want to avoid no deal and if you put in front of them someone they are prepared to negotiate with, someone they trust — no one ever does a deal with someone they don’t trust — I am that person.”
Both Cabinet ministers have publicly said they are confident of securing the numbers needed to remain in the race.
All will be desperate to survive this round as tonight’s BBC’s debate, at 8pm, sees the frontrunner Boris Johnson finally break cover for the first time since his launch campaign.
Stewart picked up just 19 votes in the first round but his campaign has gathered momentum and a source close to him told the Press Association: “I think we’re there, but it’s tight.”
Javid got 23 votes in the first round, and a campaign source acknowledged it was “close” and they were “making no predictions” about what would happen
An ally of former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, who got 27 votes, said they were “quietly confident” he would pass the threshold.