Theresa May's campaign for the Conservative leadership has been boosted by the support of a number of prominent former backers of Boris Johnson, including Cabinet minister Liz Truss and influential backbencher David Davis.
Meanwhile, rival Andrea Leadsom won the backing of Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers, while Michael Gove was endorsed by former chancellor Lord Lawson and ex-Ulster Unionist leader Lord Trimble.
The Home Secretary now has at least 115 declared supporters among Conservative MPs - more than her four rivals combined - including eight members of the Cabinet, among them Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon.
Energy minister Ms Leadsom has consolidated her position in second position with at least 36 declared backers, against 25 for Justice Secretary Mr Gove and 21 for Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb. Former defence secretary Liam Fox is yet to reach double figures.
The 330 Conservative MPs will vote on Tuesday in the first round of the election, with the poorest performing candidate being eliminated. Further rounds will take place on Thursday and the following Tuesday until only two contenders remain. The leader will be chosen from these two in a ballot of around 150,000 Conservative Party members, due to end on September 9.
Ms Truss, who had previously supported Mr Johnson for leader, said she was throwing her weight behind Mrs May because "our country needs a strong, serious leader to get the best EU exit for Britain and to champion social reform".
Other former supporters of Mr Johnson - who dramatically announced he would not join the race last Thursday - to fall in behind Mrs May included Mr Davis, who fought David Cameron for the leadership in 2005, and Braintree MP James Cleverly.
Writing in the Evening Standard, Brexit campaigner Ms Villiers said she was backing Ms Leadsom as "a fresh start and a fresh face" for the Conservatives, adding: "Andrea can provide the dynamism we need to make a success of the Brexit decision and also to carry on the crucial objective we have set ourselves of transforming this country for the better."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel