James Cleverly knocked OUT of Tory leadership race as Kemi Badenoch takes surprising lead

JAMES CLEVERLY has crashed out of the Tory leadership contest - pitting Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick in a battle for the crown.

A shock final vote of Conservative MPs saw Mr Cleverly plummet from the top spot to last place in the space of 24 hours.

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The Shadow Home Secretary - viewed as the centrist candidate - dropped from 39 votes to 37.

Ms Badenoch shot from 30 to 42, with Mr Jenrick just behind on 41 having gone up from 31.

It means the right-wingers will face off in a final ballot of around 150,000 Tory members.

The bitter rivals will slug it out for almost a month before a winner is declared on November 2.

Grassroots faveourite Ms Badenoch is now the bookies' favourite, with Coral putting her odds-on at 4-7.

The Shadow Communities Secretary went into the final 24 hours of campaigning insisting the members' deserve that chance to vote for her.

Mr Cleverly had been the favourite after a dominating performance at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham last week.

He shocked onlookers yesterday after leapfrogging Mr Jenrick into first place.

Today's results sparked speculation either of vote-lending that had back-fired, or of wider skullduggery in yesterday's ballot that inflated his vote.

After yesterday's ballot - which knocked out Tom Tugendhat - Mr Jenrick and Ms Badenoch were virtually neck and neck, on 31 and 30 votes respectively.

It sparked a last-gasp push for supporters, with both claiming to be the best standard-bearer of the Tory right against Mr Cleverly.