House of Commons
Parliament

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Shadow leader of the House Valerie Vaz says it was "only after" Health Secretary Matt Hancock dropped out of the race to be Conservative leader that he ordered a review of NHS food following an outbreak of listeria.

She adds there's been a delay in hearing a statement on flooding in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, as a result of the Environment Secretary Michael Gove standing for the leadership.

Ms Vaz says Home Secretary Sajid Javid is only offering 20,000 more police officers if he wins the contest.

Leader of the House Mel Stride says that, for the next Conservative leadership contest, Ms Vaz should be a member of the Conservative party so she can vote on the candidates.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Victoria Derbyshire

Tory MP and former Army officer Bob Stewart says he would trust Boris Johnson to "lead a platoon in battle".

He says "of course" Mr Johnson has "done things wrong - but who hasn't?"

"I actually want a leader of this country," he says.

"Everyone’s got flaws and I reckon he’s the guy."

However, Mr Stewart says his mailbag is "full of emails telling me: 'Don't vote for Boris.'"

But he reckons the "vast majority" of those people "won't vote for me either".

The foreign secretary is spotted casting his vote.

Asked if he is confident, he says: "Confident, but not over-confident."

Asked if there was a "dirty tricks" campaign against him, Michael Gove says: "I know there is a campaign for me with wonderful, wonderful people."

He adds: "I'm looking forward to being in the final two as a result of the strong support I have across the party."

Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who backs Boris Johnson, says: "I have been here long enough to know that the only dirty tricks is that MPs never tell you... the truth when it comes to leadership elections.

"They are unorganisable."

In London's Evening Standard editorial, the paper says it is supporting frontrunner Boris Johnson - who has given it his first daily newspaper interview.

The paper's editor George Osborne - a former Tory chancellor - says Mr Johnson is the candidate "who might just get Britain feeling good about itself again".

Conservative MPs have begun voting in the latest ballot - but there will be a further poll later today as the four candidates are whittled down to the final two.

• 10:00 - 12:00 BST: MPs vote on last four

• From 13:00: The fourth place candidate is eliminated

• 15:30-17:30: MPs vote on last three

• From 18:00: The third place contender is eliminated - and we will find out who the final two candidates are.

The final vote goes to the 160,000 or so members of the Conservative Party.

House of Commons
Parliament

This is quite a rare event: an urgent question has been withdrawn.

Sir Bill Cash will not ask his question on payments to the EU in the event of no-deal, meaning that we will hear the business statement for the upcoming week at 10:30 BST instead.

Conservative MP Alistair Burt says the next leader should be a good negotiator with a business background and that is Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

He says he thinks Mr Hunt will avoid a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Burt adds that Rory Stewart's votes "will be going in different directions".

Victoria Derbyshire

Gove-backer Nicky Morgan says Michael Gove is an "original Brexiteer".

She says it's "important" to have two Brexiteers in the final ballot, and the environment secretary is "best placed" to hold frontrunner Boris Johnson to account.

She adds that Mr Gove is the only candidate to have set out a "clear plan" on Brexit.

Here are the candidates' Brexit plans in a nutshell

Here is the result of the latest survey on the leadership contest from ConservativeHome, and Boris Johnson is top.

Michael Gove, who is currently in third position in the ballot of Tory MPs, has pushed Jeremy Hunt into third place in this poll.

Voting in the fourth round of the Tory leadership race is now open.

It closes at 12:00 BST and we expect a result about 13:00.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Cabinet minister Amber Rudd - who is supporting Jeremy Hunt - earlier called on Boris Johnson to publicly come out against "game playing" in the leadership race.

Amid reports that Mr Johnson's supporters may vote tactically to attempt to knock Michael Gove out of the contest, the work and pensions secretary said: "I find all this conversation about lending votes rather discrediting of the system.

"I would really call on Boris himself to repudiate the information that is coming out of 'friends of Boris', saying this, saying one thing."

She added: "This is a serious moment. We don't need that sort of game playing going on in Parliament."