Rishi Sunak latest: Penny Mordaunt scrambles for Tory votes to be UK’s next prime minister

A blow for the Mordaunt campaign as a key supporter seems to suggest he has defected – to back Rishi.

George Freeman said he was motivated by the need for stability and unity, and urged Ms Mordaunt to join him.

He tweeted: “Penny Mordaunt is a huge force for Conservatism; with the life-story, vision & courage to help lead a Conservative revival. I’m proud to support her.

“But given the urgent need for Conservative Stability + Unity this week, I’m urging her to join & back @RishiSunak today. “

Sir Keir Starmer has said the Just Stop Oil climate activists who have stopped traffic and thrown food at valuable paintings are “wrong and arrogant” (Adam Forrest writes).

The Labour leader criticised the protesters who have blocked traffic by gluing themselves to roads in recent days – after one protest saw emergency vehicles temporarily blocked.

“I think they’re wrong, I think their action is wrong, Sir Keir told LBC Radio. “My mum was very ill all of her life – she was in those ambulances when she was alive, and there will other families listening to this who will be in the same situation. It’s arrogant.”

He insisted he was fully behind a move away from fossil fuels as part of a push towards renewable energy – saying he believed Britain can have clean power by 2030.

Liz Truss is expected to give her full support to her successor as prime minister, Downing Street indicated.

Asked if she would be supporting the new occupant of No 10, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I am confident that she would.”

The spokesman confirmed that it would be for the new prime minister to decide whether to proceed with the medium-term fiscal plan setting out how the government will get the public finances back on track on 31 October as planned.

“The Treasury continues to work towards having a package ready for the 31st should a new prime minister wish it to proceed on that date,” the spokesman said.

Rishi Sunak is attracting support from senior Tories who would not be his natural bedfellows, as it looks inevitable he will become PM later today.

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith declared his support for the former chancellor and urged a swift end to the Tory leadership contest.

Tory heavyweights have been lining up to support Mr Sunak in the final hours before the deadline for nominations, with backers including Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove and Priti Patel.

The European Research Group of Brexiteer Tory MPs has failed to unite over either Rishi Sunak or Penny Mordaunt, leader of the group Mark Francois said.

Members of the influential right-wing cohort of Tories were “unable to collectively endorse either candidate”, the chair said.

“However, some of us having spoken to both potential candidates this morning, they were equally adamant that they would take – if they became prime minister – a very robust line on the Northern Ireland Protocol, up to and including, if necessary, utilising the Parliament Act to ensure that the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill reaches the statute book.”

He added, “whoever becomes PM tonight or Friday, we will unite behind them, and assist them in trying to unite the Conservative Party.”

The ERG remains powerful in the Tory party despite Britain’s withdrawal from the EU. It was sympathetic to Liz Truss, who met the group shortly before her downfall in an attempt to rally backbench support for her premiership.

George Freeman, a Mordaunt backer and former minster, this morning seems to be suggesting that she should pull out in the national interest.

Her team says she is “getting” the votes she needs, but with just under two-and-a-half hours to go the clock is ticking.

Team Mordaunt has claimed she has now received the support of more than 90 Tory MPs, just shy of the 100 needed to get on the ballot.

Ms Mordaunt’s team is urging others to back her so that there can be a contest decided by the party membership and not just among MPs.

A campaign source said: “We have now passed 90. For the sake of the party, it’s important our members have their say.”

Only 26 backers have gone public so far.

It is a simple and fundamental principle that the government derives its democratic legitimacy from the people. The future of the country must not be decided by plotting and U-turns at Westminster; it must be decided by the people in a general election.

And for this reason The Independent is calling for an election to be held.

Penny Mordaunt should pull out of the race for the sake of party unity, a senior Conservative peer said.

Michal Forsyth says “the pantomime” of the leadership contest needs to end so the government can get on with its job.

He told the BBC it was “perfectly obvious” Rishi Sunak has more support, adding:

“The last thing we need is for us to have an extended period when markets are unsettled and when, quite frankly, the Conservative Party is looking ridiculous – both at home and abroad,” said Baron Forsyth, who was John Major’s Scottish secretary.

Rishi Sunak’s looks all but certain to be named Britiain’s new prime minister – and its first Hindu leader, just in time for Diwali – after an extraordinarily turbulent year in Westminster and for him personally (Joe Sommerlad writes).

Mr Sunak was born in Southampton on 12 May 1980, his parents Yashvir and Usha Sunak a GP and pharmacist respectively, the couple originally from East Africa with roots in Punjab, India.

The eldest of three children, Mr Sunak attended the prestigious Stroud School in Hampshire and Winchester College, where he was head boy and edited the school newspaper, waiting tables in a curry house during the school holidays to boost his coffers.