James Cleverly has become the first of the 13 Tory candidates to withdraw. He will now not be submitting his nomination papers…

“Last week I announced that I intended to run for the leadership of the Conservative Party and as Prime Minister.

I felt that we needed to deliver Brexit and then quickly move the conversation on to other important issues that face the country. I had hoped that the Conservative parliamentary party would support me to be the face and voice of that conversation.

To do this I asked them to make a leap of faith, skip a generation and vote for a relatively new MP. It is clear that despite much support, particularly from our party’s grassroots, MPs weren’t comfortable with such a move and it has become clear that it is highly unlikely that I would progress to the final two candidates.

For this reason I have withdrawn from the process of selecting a new leader and will not be submitting nomination papers”

This will pile on the pressure for other incredibly long-shot candidates to withdraw before they’re mercilessly voted down by the Parliamentary Party. And then there were twelve…

UPDATE: This means four MPs are now unpledged; Colin Clark, Julian Knight, Stephen Metcalfe and James Cleverly of course.

View the full list here: order-order.com/backers

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