Fareham MP Suella Braverman voted out the race to be the next prime minister as Penny Mordaunt gains more support

The attorney general was eliminated today as the second round of votes took place.

She secured the backing of just 27 MPs – three shy of the 30 threshold needed to continue in the political race to Downing Street.

Meanwhile, Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt clinched the biggest swell of support in the last 24 hours, gaining 83 total votes – and increase of 16 over Wednesday’s result.

The figure places her in a comfortable second position behind former chancellor Rishi Sunak, who bagged 101 votes. Meanwhile, Liz Truss, in third, clinched 64 votes, with Kemi Badenoch winning over 49 MPs and outsider Tom Tugendhat claiming 32.

Liz Truss’s leadership election team claimed she is attracting a wide range of support from across the Tory party, as they indicted Suella Braverman’s supporters should now back the foreign secretary.

A spokeswoman for Ms Truss said: ‘Today’s results show that Liz Truss is attracting a wide range of supporters from across the Conservative Party.

‘Suella Braverman ran a campaign that she can rightly be proud.

‘As Liz set out in her speech now is the time for MPs to unite behind the candidate who will cut taxes, deliver the real economic change we need, continue to deliver the benefits of Brexit and ensure Putin loses in Ukraine.

‘Liz Truss has the experience to deliver from day one, grow our economy and support working families and then beat Labour.’

Earlier Ms Braverman had insisted she would 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.

Speaking ahead of this afternoon’s vote, the attorney general said: ‘We are in this to win it.’

Earlier Ms Mordaunt came under a scathing attack by former Brexit minister Lord Frost.

He told TalkTV: ‘I am quite surprised at where she is in this leadership race. She was my deputy – notionally, more than really – in the Brexit talks last year.

‘I felt she did not master the detail that was necessary in the negotiations last year. She wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the European Union when that was necessary.

‘She wasn’t fully accountable, she wasn’t always visible. Sometimes I didn’t even know where she was. This became such a problem that, after six months, I had to ask the Prime Minister to move her on and find somebody else to support me.’

Allies of Ms Mordaunt said she had ‘nothing but respect’ for Lord Frost despite his scathing attack on her.

A source in the Penny Mordaunt campaign said: ‘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.’

The Portsmouth North MP is the bookies favourite to win the leadership campaign.