Rory Stewart was eliminated from the Tory leadership race after the third round of voting by Conservative MPs on Wednesday, as Boris Johnson again topped the ballot with 143 votes.
Jeremy Hunt came second with 54 votes, narrowly ahead of Michael Gove with 51, while Sajid Javid picked up five extra votes to reach 38.
Mr Johnson was earlier called “racist” and “not fit for office” during PMQs by Ian Blackford, the SNP leader in the Commons.
Senior Labour MPs put pressure on leader Jeremy Corbyn to back a second Brexit referendum at a shadow cabinet meeting.
Nigel Farage, meanwhile, claimed the Brexit Party could form an electoral pact with a Johnson-led Conservative Party to deliver a no deal exit.
See how the day unfolded below:
Welcome to The Independent's live coverage of the third round in the Tory leadership race.
Last night's vote saw Dominic Raab forced out, leaving Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Rory Stewart and Sajid Javid still in the running.
The first debate involving frontrunner Mr Johnson last night is unlikely to have swayed many MPs' minds, ending with no clear winner after a fractious debate taking in Brexit, Islamophobia, tax cuts and climate change.
However, Michael Gove claimed he "won the debate" on BBC Newsnight, "because I had the most detailed answers and I have a clear plan to how we can deliver Brexit and make sure we get all the benefits of life outside the European Union".
Adam Forrest has covered the five key Boris Johnson moments from last night's debate:
Five key Boris Johnson moments from the Tory leadership debate
Contest frontrunner grilled on Islamophobia, Brexit deadlines and cutting top tax rateAs the candidate who currently has the fewest number of backers, there are rumours Sajid Javid could drop out, but supporter Stephen Crabb MP told Newsnight his favourite had performed well in the debates and was not about to quit.
"Did Sajid Javid look like a man who's about to throw in the towel or about to be knocked out of the contest?" Mr Crabb said.
"He fought tonight, I thought he gave - in a difficult format - he gave a good display of what he can offer the country."
During the BBC debate, Mr Johnson's rivals had turned on him over his ambition to give people earning more than £50,000 a tax cut. He was also taken to task over his comments comparing veiled Muslim women to "letterboxes" and "bank robbers". Adam Forrest covered the debate:
Boris Johnson dodges questions about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and 'letterbox' comments
Former foreign secretary also claims his previous comments on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe ‘didn’ t make any difference’ to her caseNigel Farage has said he would be willing to form a pact with Mr Johnson to deliver a no-deal Brexit, Rob Merrick writes:
Nigel Farage willing to strike election pact with Boris Johnson to get a no-deal Brexit
Brexit party leader urges next Tory prime minister to call a general election, saying 'I'd want to work with them, of course I'd do that'Also during last night's debate, Mr Johnson said he would lift the National Insurance threshold for the low-paid, but there should be a "debate" about the 40p higher income tax rate, which currently kicks in at £50,000.
"It does seem to be very odd that in the Conservative Party people should seriously question whether it is right to try to lift nurses and heads of maths departments and police inspectors out of the top rate of tax," he said.
Andrew Woodcock has the story:
Boris Johnson backs down on key campaign promises during Tory leadership debate
The IndependentThe former foreign secretary maintained a commanding lead after in the second round of MPs’ votesThe candidates also clashed over Brexit:
- Mr Stewart insisted Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement was the only route out of the European Union, while "everybody else is staring at the wall shouting 'Believe in Britain'."
- Mr Gove said the Withdrawal Agreement had already been rejected three times and "you cannot simply re-present the same cold porridge for a fourth time and ask people to say that's what they want".
- Mr Johnson said the 31 October deadline for leaving the EU must be met "otherwise, I'm afraid, we face a catastrophic loss of confidence in politics".
- Mr Javid said it had been a "mistake" to have a flexible deadline, and the 31 October date would concentrate minds on both sides of the Brexit negotiations.
-Mr Hunt said he would delay beyond 31 October if a deal was in reach, as "if we were nearly there, then I would take a bit longer", a point echoed by Mr Gove, who said he would allow "extra time" to be played to secure an agreement.
Adam Forest has more:
Rory Stewart promises 'there would never be no deal Brexit' if he becomes prime minister
The IndependentLeadership hopeful calls no deal exit ‘unnecessary and damaging’ as other candidates insists it remains as optionIn yesterday's ballot, Mr Johnson built on his lead to secure 126 votes - 12 more than the first round - putting him 80 ahead of Mr Hunt who had 46 votes, up three.
Mr Gove put on four votes to reach 41, while Mr Stewart surged into fourth place on 37, gaining 18 votes since last week.
Mr Javid scraped into the next stage of the contest, just meeting the threshold of 33 votes - a gain of 10 - while Mr Raab was eliminated with 30 votes.
Andrew Woodcock has more:
Boris Johnson tops Tory ballot as Dominic Raab eliminated
The IndependentMomentum is with Rory Stewart, who almost doubled his vote tally to shoot into fourth placeMr Stewart said he has received positive responses from backers of eliminated hardline Brexiteer candidate Dominic Raab.
The international development secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I have had some positive responses, yes. I had a couple this morning."
Referring to his stance on Brexit, Mr Stewart said: "The reason for that [support] is that like me, they feel - and, I feel, like Dom - that we have to get this done."
Asked why he took off his tie during the TV debate, Mr Stewart said: "I took off my tie, I think, because I wanted to take my tie off.
"And, it seemed like a good idea at the time."
Boris Johnson's remarks about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian mother imprisoned in Iran, had "traumatic effects", her husband has said. Ashley Cowburn has the story:
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband vehemently contradicts Boris Johnson's claim his botched intervention 'made no difference'
Richard Ratcliffe says Tory leadership frontrunner comments had 'traumatic effects' and enabled propaganda campaignMr Hunt said he was unclear whether Boris Johnson would guarantee taking the UK out of the EU on 31 October.
The foreign secretary told the Today programme: "Well, I am not entirely sure what he believes on this, having listened to him last night.
"You have to think these things through because prime ministers have to make these judgments."
Mr Hunt said the Tory Party has to be "whiter than white ourselves" as he backed an independent inquiry into allegations of Islamophobia in the party.
"I think we should have an independent inquiry because the cancer of racism and prejudice is not restricted to any one political party," he told the Today programme.
"We have been very vociferous calling out Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism and if we are going to do that, and I think we are right to do that, then we have to be whiter than white ourselves."
Rory Stewart in talks with Michael Gove to stop Boris Johnson becoming prime minister
Tory leadership candidate Rory Stewart has said he is talking with rival Michael Gove about "combining forces" to block Boris Johnson's bid for 10 Downing Street. Mr Stewart's shock announcement comes just hours before Tory MPs take part in the second round of voting to decide a successor to Theresa May as prime minister. The international development secretary has surprisedBBC presenter Nicky Campbell has apologised after an imam who questioned the Tory leadership contenders about Islamophobia was found to have made critical comments about Israel.
Mr Campbell, who had Abdullah Patel on his breakfast show on BBC Radio 5 Live the morning after the live TV debate, said the imam had made "extremely disturbing" remarks on Twitter, and he was "sorry" the broadcaster had not checked beforehand.
In tweets unearthed by the Guido Fawkes website, Mr Patel wrote: "Every Political figure on the Zionist's payroll is scaring the world about Corbyn. They don't like him. He seems best suited to tackle them!"
He also shared an image endorsing the relocation of Israel to the US as a way of solving the Israel/Palestine conflict.
Mr Patel has since taken down his Twitter account.
Mr Campbell tweeted: "I would like to apologise. We had the Imam from the BBC Tory leadership debate on our programme this morning. His social media comments have been extremely disturbing. We should have checked. We didn't. I'm sorry."
A spokeswoman for Mr Stewart's leadership campaign confirmed conversations about a joint ticket with Mr Gove had been held, but stressed "Rory wants to lead".
She said: "Clearly at some point people will need to combine teams.
"But any team that gets combined, Rory wants to lead it - Rory believes he is the only one with a chance to beat Boris in the final two and to provide the clearest choice.
"He's the one out polling in the areas we need to win.
"Rory's in this to win, whether on his own or with other people coming behind him - and go all the way to the final two and Number 10."
The imam who questioned the Tory leadership contenders during the BBC debate - who had previously made critical comments about Israel - would not have been selected if the broadcaster had been aware of the views he expressed, the corporation has said.
A BBC spokesman said: "We carried out background research into the online and social media profiles of all our questioners for last night's debate.
"Following the debate, one individual reactivated a public twitter account he had previously deactivated, whose tweets were not visible during our research period.
"Had we been aware of the views he expressed there he would not have been selected."
The imam has been suspended from all school duties at Al-Ashraf Primary School where he is deputy head after it emerged he had made critical comments about Israel.
Yakub Patel, the chairman of the Al-Madani Educational Trust, said it a statement on the school's website: "Following some of the comments attributed to Mr Patel in the media this morning, the trust has decided to suspend him from all school duties with immediate effect until a full investigation is carried out.
"The school and trust do not share the views attributed to him."
Mr Raab, who was knocked out in the second round, has backed Mr Johnson to be the next prime minister.
He said Mr Johnson was the only candidate who would ensure the UK leaves the EU by 31 October. “The only candidate who will now do this is Boris Johnson — and so I’ll be supporting him to become our next prime minister," he told the Evening Standard.
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