Britain’s next Prime Minister will be a woman after Michael Gove was dramatically knocked out of the Conservative leadership race.

A week after he killed off Boris Johnson’s chances by, as one MP put it, 'knifing him in the front”, Mr Gove’s ambitions ended when he failed to secure enough votes from fellow Tory MPs.

The run-off for the next Conservative leader - and with it the keys to No 10 - will now be between the pro-Remain Home Secretary Theresa May and the pro-Leave energy minister Andrea Leadsom.

In just nine weeks around 150,000 members of the Conservative party will make one of them Prime Minister.

Last night both women claimed that they would provide the leadership needed to unite their party and the country.

It followed another day of controversy in the campaign.

First Mr Gove's team was forced to apologise after a text to Tory MPs suggested that the idea of a Prime Minister Leadsom was frightening.

Ms Leadsom herself was also forced to defend her CV as "absolutely true".

And she faced attacks from Mrs May who denounced her pledge to allow all EU nationals to stay remain in the UK as dangerous, saying it would mean foreign criminals could also stay.

In the end Mr Leadsom secured the backing of 84 MPs, more than enough to force Mr Gove into third place on 46 and out of the contest.

The faraway frontrunner was Mrs May, with 199 votes, around 60 per cent of Tory MPs.

But Tory members could prefer the Leave campaigner Mrs Leadsom.

Polls in the run up to the referendum suggested that the party's membership overwhelmingly wanted to exit the EU.

Mrs May has secured the backing of Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, who described the cabinet minister as a "proper grown up ... best placed to navigate the stormy waters ahead".

"Serious times call for serious people and Theresa is a proper grown up who will assess all the evidence before making a decision.

"I trust her in the tough negotiations ahead to be able to go eyeball to eyeball with (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel, and not blink," Ms Davidson said.

She also suggested that Mrs May would "most able to protect Scotland's place in the UK".

After the result Mrs May said that she could provide strong, proven leadership necessary to negotiate the best deal from Brussels and to make Britain “a country that works not for a privileged few but for every one of us”.

Mrs May, who kept a low profile during the referendum campaign, has also tried to neutralise the EU issue by reassuring Leave voters "Brexit is Brexit".

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who is backing Mrs Leadsom, said she had "real steel" but within the "velvet glove of compassion".

She also received Mr Johnson;s support.

He said that she was “well placed to win and replace the absurd gloom in some quarters with a positive, confident and optimistic approach, not just to Europe, but to government all round."

Her campaign chief Tim Loughton said that the election represented a "quirky" choice for the Tories.

"They both went to state schools, they are both women, hey, that's pretty quirky for the Tory party," he said.

Mrs Leadsom’s team was forced to deny links to Ukip.

But she did receive the backing of the party's outgoing leader Nigel Farage.

Mrs Leadsom has insisted she has "no allegiance" to Ukip and pledged her Brexit negotiating team would come from within Government.

The contest was triggered by David Cameron’s dramatic resignation just hours after it was confirmed that he had lost the EU referendum.

The postal ballot of Conservative members closes on September 9.