Pressure still on foreign secretary in leadership race as she gains just seven new backers in latest round
Supporters of Liz Truss have said her key rival, Penny Mordaunt, has “topped out” of backers, as the foreign secretary gained ground in the fight for second place in theMordaunt lost a vote in the latest ballot of Tory MPs – a key sign her campaign had stalled after a weekend of bruising attacks – but remained behind frontrunnerKemi Badenoch
Sunak will launch a crime policy blitz on Tuesday, pledging to introduce a new offence for belonging to or facilitating abuse by grooming gangs, as well as a new offence for taking “downblousing” pictures down women’s tops. He will also propose making it an aggravating factor in sentencing if criminals refuse to appear in court and review sentence guidelines for crimes against women and girls.
The MP said he had been offered jobs in future administrations if he dropped out of the race, but he wanted to see party democracy run its course. “It is not my job to decide – it is yours,” he told MPs. “That is the nature of democracy: that I give you the choice, rather than taking it from you.” “There have been a number of times when she hasn’t been available, which would have been useful, and other ministers have picked up the pieces,” she added.Penny Mordaunt
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