Tory leadership latest – live: Result imminent in second round of MPs voting as Lord Frost attacks Mordaunt

Allies of Liz Truss have urged Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch to abandon their leadership bids to help boost support for the Foreign Secretary.

A senior Truss supporter said there was a need to “unite the right”, insisting that backers of her two rivals should “recognise the reality of the situation”.

Suella Braverman has insisted she will not abandon her leadership campaign and said she was looking forward to the TV debates.

Her campaign team believes that getting her into the debates, due to begin on Friday night, is key to her chances – but she must first survive today’s round of votes.

“We are in this to win it,” the attorney general said.

She said her plan to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and be “fearless in the fight for common sense vales” were popular with voters.

A source in Tom Tugendhat’s campaign has told the Press Assocation news agency that they believed he had enough votes to stay in the contest.

The source said they were confident there was enough support to get a “one nation” Tory voice through to the next round and the TV debates.

Mr Tugendhat expects to pick up some votes that had gone to Jeremy Hunt and Nadhim Zahawi in the previous round, the source added.

The results of the second ballot are due at 3pm.

Liz Truss has been criticised by political leaders in Leeds for comments during her campaign speech in which she claimed there were “low expectations” and “poor educational standards” at the comprehensive school she attended in the city.

“Many of the children I was at school with were let down by low expectations, poor educational standards and a lack of opportunity. Too much talent went to waste,” the foreign secretary said of her time at Roundhay School in the 1980s and 1990s – a school rated as outstanding by Ofsted since 2013.

Labour councillor and Leeds City Council leader James Lewis argued that in truth “it was Conservative government underfunding of schools for 18 years that really let kids down”.

And Fabian Hamilton, the Labour MP representing Leeds North East, said: “Once again, Liz Truss has shown she knows little about North East Leeds. First, she wrongly suggested that Roundhay was a red wall seat and now she has criticised our hard-working teachers and school staff in Leeds.

“Roundhay School has been an excellent educational institution for decades and its staff and students are real assets to our community. It’s shameful that Liz Truss has decided to attack them today.”

A source from Penny Mordaunt’s campaign told The Independent after Lord Frost tore into her: “Penny has nothing but respect for Lord Frost. He did a huge amount to assist our negotiations until he resigned from government.

“Penny will always fight for Brexit and always has.”

Conservative leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat has backtracked on remarks that appeared to cast doubt on his commitment to the party’s target of net-zero damaging greenhouse-gas emissions .

Former energy minister Chris Skidmore tweeted that Mr Tugendhat had told a hustings event that the target should be moved back, writes Adam Forrest:

Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick reports:

Suella Braverman, the Tory leadership contender most likely to be knocked out at 3pm today, has insisted she is still “in this to win it” as she headed off to vote.

“We take one round at a time,” the attorney general and arch-Brexiteer said, adding: “I’m fighting to win” and urging fellow Tories to “get behind me”.

Ms Braverman admitted she is “not necessarily as well known” as other candidates, but insisted that could change after live TV debates – if she survives in the contest that long.

She also dismissed a claim that she does not run a big department, pointing to the legal advice the attorney general is required to provide – including, potentially, on military action – telling Sky News: “That pressure is excruciating.”

However, having sneaked into the second ballot with just 32 votes, the lowest tally, Ms Braverman is odds-on favourite to crash out of the contest in mid-afternoon.

As Tory MPs gather to cast their votes in the second round of the leadership race, Cabinet Office minister Kit Malthouse is to chair an emergency Cobra meeting to discuss the heatwave

Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said the move was a “progression” of the “significant work “ that had already been done to prepare for the heatwave – and the even hotter conditions forecast in the coming days

The spokesman said that there were a number of contingency measures which have been enacted or are ready to be enacted.

Asked about claims that Penny Mordaunt’s campaign had been surprised when Jeremy Hunt backed Rishi Sunak rather than her yesterday – given that she lost her Cabinet role over her support for him in 2019 – Tory MP David Davis said: “That’s politics.”

Saying that he was “not really” suprised by the move, he told Sky News: “Jeremy’s more of an establishment politician, I can understand why he went with Rishi, I think they’re friends anyway.”

The former Brexit minister said “that’s Jeremy for you” when the matter of Ms Mordaunt’s professional sacrifice for Mr Hunt was brought up.

A small queue of Tory MPs has formed in the Commons committee corridor ahead of polls opening for the second round of the leadership contest.

Voting began at 11.30am and MPs have until 1.30pm to cast their ballot, with the result announced at 3pm.

Shortly after his attack on Penny Mordaunt over Brexit, there are claims that Lord Truss could be about to back Liz Truss.

Christopher Hope of the Daily Telegraph quoted a source as claiming that the former Brexit negotiator could echo Therese Coffey this morning in telling supporters of Tory right candidates Kemi Badenoch and Suella Braverman to back Ms Truss instead.

It was not immediately clear whether the source was one close to Ms Truss or Lord Frost.