Conservative MPs have voted for the final two candidates to replace Boris Johnson
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss make the cut - Penny Mordaunt is knocked out
Sunak got 137 votes, Truss 113, and Mordaunt 105
The final two will face a ballot of 160,000 Tory Party members, with the result due on 5 September
In the previous round, Sunak was top while Mordaunt came second and Truss third
After being knocked out, Mordaunt says "we go forward together"
Earlier, Johnson said his "mission is largely accomplished... for now" in his final PMQs as prime minister
Boris Johnson says he's not been following the contest to find his successor "particularly closely".
"My impression is there's been quite a lot of debate everywhere.
"The public are having ample opportunity to view the talent," he says.
Image source, House of CommonsSir Keir Starmer opens by telling Boris Johnson that he knows the relationship between a PM and leader of the opposition is never easy and he wishes him and his family the best in the future.
His first question to Johnson is, why does the PM think those vying to replace him decided to pull out of the Sky debate that was originally due to be held on Sunday night?
Image source, House of CommonsThe first MP to ask a question is Kim Leadbeater, sister of the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox.
She says public trust in politicians is at an all-time low.
Will the prime minister be using the next few weeks to personally consider why this could be, she asks, pointedly.
In response, Johnson says he will be using the next few weeks to drive forward the Conservatives' agenda, uniting and levelling up, investing in places that were "betrayed" by Labour, he says.
Image source, House of CommonsBoris Johnson is on his feet and pays tribute to the "heroic firefighters" who worked to put out grass fires sparked by yesterday's record temperatures, and says the house will want to thank them.
Johnson says this will certainly be his last PMQs from this dispatch box - or any other, he jokes.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle begins by saying it is likely to be Boris Johnson's final PMQs - he wishes him and his family all the best for the future.
"We've been through many dark times in this house, none more so than through the pandemic," he says, paying tribute to Johnson's conduct during this time.
He says he understands that members will have different views about the PM's legacy and those views will be passionately held.
Prime Minister's Questions is now under way, with Boris Johnson and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer facing off against each other from the despatch box for the final time.
We'll bring you all the updates here.
Image source, Getty ImagesBoris Johnson will be at the House of Commons in a few minutes to face Sir Keir Starmer.
Stick with us for coverage of the final PMQs of his premiership. You can watch it live by clicking the 'play' button at the top of this page.
Image source, .After PMQs, Conservative MPs will vote in the final round of this stage of the leadership contest - determining which two contenders are put to the Tory membership to vote on over the summer.
We'll have those two names at 16:00, when Sir Graham Brady of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers will announce who's made it into the final run-off.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is currently the bookies' favourite to win.
The graphic shows that Truss is now given odds of winning the race of 50%, with Rishi Sunak trailing on 40% and Penny Mordaunt way down on less than 20%.
It's worth noting that all three candidates left in the contest have now, at some point since it began, been named the bookies' favourite to win.
Boris Johnson will be making the quick trip from Downing Street to the Houses of Parliament shortly for what is due to be his last Prime Minister's Questions.
Johnson is due to step down as PM on 6 September, and Parliament will not be sitting from tomorrow until 5 September.
Johnson will be up at the despatch box responding to questions from opposition and his own MPs from 12:00.
Stick with us for the key exchanges and analysis of how his final PMQs has played out.
Image source, PA MediaOne of the biggest challenges facing the candidates vying to be the next PM should they be successful will be the cost of living crisis affecting the UK.
Figures today show a 9.4% jump in inflation - the measure of how much prices are rising - with costs continuing to increase at their fastest rate for 40 years, driven particularly by petrol, energy and food costs.
Opposition MPs today suggested the Conservative Party - and its last three candidates to be the next prime minister - should take the issue more seriously, with the Lib Dems' Sarah Olney asking where the "zombie government" is.
"The country can't wait any longer for this Conservative party to play out their horror-show leadership contest," she said, adding VAT should be "slashed right away".
Meanwhile, Labour Party Chair Anneliese Dodds accused the Tory candidates of "fantasy economics" in their campaign promises. She said, instead, the government "needs to be engaging in public sector negotiations".
Shortly after 16:00 today we'll know who the two candidates are that Conservative MPs are sending to the party membership to choose the next leader and the country's next prime minister.
The party has just given more details of how that election will be conducted, external.
Ballot papers will begin landing on doorsteps from Monday 1 August. Members will be able to vote by post or online.
This means members will have almost a month to vote, compared with about two weeks in 2019 when Boris Johnson was the victor.
The winner will be announced on 5 September, and take over from Boris Johnson as prime minister the following day.
Former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has defended comments Rishi Sunak made about reaching net zero emissions.
Sunak previously warned that if progress on the green agenda was "too hard and too fast" it would lose public support.
The UK saw record temperatures on Tuesday, with heatwaves becoming more frequent, more intense, and longer lasting because of human-induced climate change,
Speaking about Sunak's comments, Jenrick told Sky News: "What he has said is that this is a big and expensive and logistically difficult journey for the country, and we've got to make sure we keep the public with us on that path
"When we're thinking of new pledges - whether that's the introduction of electric vehicles, or mandating that homes have to have ground-source heat pumps - we've got to think about the pound in people's pocket, so that these are affordable and sensible steps that people can get behind.”
As the three remaining candidates jostle for support ahead of today's final vote by MPs to determine who makes the run-off for Conservative leader, Penny Mordaunt has received another public endorsement.
Senior Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale tells the BBC he is backing Mordaunt, adding his main concern is making sure the Tory party members - who'll vote for the next leader and UK prime minister from the run-off selected by MPs - get the two candidates they want most.
"One of those people, almost certainly I think, is going to be Rishi Sunak because the parliamentary party has made it clear they want him in the contest," he says. But he adds that he believes the party "in the country" wants Mordaunt.
Before today, Sir Roger, who was been critical of Boris Johnson, hadn't officially declared support for a single candidate, instead saying he'd "back one of the insurgents" - that is, Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt or Tom Tugendhat.
"Two of them have gone out of the race and we're now left with Penny - that's why I'll be supporting her," he says. "She's got the courage and the integrity to do the job."
Chris Mason
Political editor
There has been day after day of smiles and visions, promises and hustings.
But it now boils down to a final vote of Conservative MPs to decide which two of the three remaining candidates get a golden ticket to the run-off vote among Tory party members.
Right now, the final realignment is under way - votes are fluid.
Even if a candidate's numbers don't appear to move much between votes, they can still have gained some and lost others.
Read more here
Image source, .Conservative leadership contender Kemi Badenoch, who was knocked out of the race yesterday, says she will not declare who she is backing.
She tells UK broadcasters: “I’m not declaring. I’m absolutely not declaring who I’m backing. I know who I’ll be voting for.
"But I think the right thing for me to do now is to make sure whoever wins in the end is supported fully, and so I won’t be declaring.”
She says she was “disappointed” by the result – “but mainly for all the people who backed me.”
“I was happy to finally get a chance to have my say.”
After the final two candidates in the Conservative leadership contest are chosen today, hustings for members of the party will then be held around the country – starting from Friday 22 July.
The winner will be announced on Monday 5 September after a postal ballot, completed by some 160,000 Tory party members.
Before that, the final two candidates have agreed to take part in a head-to-head debate on the BBC on Monday 25 July.
We started with 11 candidates. Jeremy Hunt, Nadhim Zahawi, Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch, Sajid Javid, Rehman Chishti, Tom Tugendhat, Grant Shapps have all dropped out or withdrawn from the contest.
Now, just three candidates remain in the contest to appoint a new Conservative leader and prime minister.
Rishi Sunak is the former chancellor who launched his leadership bid with a focus on the economy, ruling out tax cuts before public finances improve.
Despite his reputation being dented by a controversy over his wife's tax affairs - and being fined for breaching lockdown rules - Sunak still leads after the latest round of voting by Tory MPs.
His backers including former leadership rivals Grant Shapps and Jeremy Hunt, as well as Deputy PM Dominic Raab.
Trade minister Penny Mordaunt has come second in all four rounds of voting, and was for a time the bookies' favourite.
The most junior of the remaining candidates, she has promised to cut VAT on fuel and to raise the basic and middle earner income tax thresholds in line with inflation.
Her supporters include senior backbenchers Andrea Leadsom and David Davis.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has promised immediate tax cuts, a reversal of the National Insurance hike introduced by Sunak and a long-term commitment to reducing the size of the state.
Popular among Conservative Party members, Truss secured early backing from Boris Johnson loyalists including Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, and Jacob Rees-Mogg – as well as former leadership hopeful and staunch Brexiteer Suella Braverman.
Image source, Wikimedia CommonsFormer minister George Freeman has questioned whether his colleague's backing of Penny Mordaunt had anything to do with him being suspended
A bit more on Tobias Ellwood being suspended from the Conservative parliamentary party for missing a confidence vote in Boris Johnson's government.
Some Conservative MPs have suggested Ellwood, a long-term critic of Johnson, would not have had the whip removed if he was a loyal supporter of the PM's.
Asked this morning about whether Ellwood may have been treated differently if he was backing Liz Truss in the leadership race - the candidate seen as closest to Johnson - former minister George Freeman told LBC Radio , external“I think that’s true also".
As we've reported, Ellwood's suspensions means he won't be able to vote in the leadership contest later.
A senior Tory MP who had the whip removed after he missed a vote of confidence in Boris Johnson's government has described the leadership contest as a "sad chapter" in the party's history.
Tobias Ellwood, who argued he was unable to return to the confidence vote because he was in a meeting in Moldova, is now unable to vote in today's final leadership vote.
“The nation wants to be impressed and inspired, not demoralised, by what they're witnessing right now,” he told Sky News, warning the party had “lost [its] way”.
To get back on track, he says, the party needs to “perhaps exhibit greater decorum, dial the temperature down a bit, showcase the ideas, the vision, focus on those things that are important, that the nation wants to see”.
He added:
Image source, PA MediaTobias Ellwood said the nation wanted to be "impressed and inspired, not demoralised" by the contest
Quote MessageThat's what will earn us the right to stay in government otherwise, we're just going to be letting ourselves down and indeed committing ourselves to probably a long spell in opposition.”
Tobias Ellwood, Tory MP
Image source, ReutersOf course, the three remaining candidates competing to be the next Conservative leader and prime minister will be replacing Boris Johnson.
Johnson resigned as Conservative leader last month after a flood of resignations from his government that followed a number of controversies.
He will face Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and other MPs at Prime Minister's Questions for the final time at 12:00. But while it's his last time at the dispatch box, Johnson will continue as prime minister for now, despite opposition parties calling for him to resign immediately.
Earlier this week, Johnson's government won a confidence vote, meaning he will continue in post until a successor is chosen.
Stick with us and we'll bring you the key exchanges and analysis from PMQs.