This Tory leadership hopeful couldn’t get a single vote – so had to pull out of the race

Sajid Javid has also withdrawn from the contest

A Tory leadership hopeful has pulled out of the race to become party leader after he failed to get the public support of a single MP.

Rehman Chishti had hoped he could be the man to lead the country following Boris Johnson’s resignation last week.

But on Tuesday evening, less than an hour before the deadline to secure the required backing needed to enter the leadership race, he withdraw from the contest.

The Gillingham and Rainham MP tweeted: “I will not be taking my campaign any further for the leadership of our party @Conservatives as I have not been able to secure the necessary parliamentary backing.”

He also posted a statement in which he said he had “given everything I possibly can” to “step up and serve our great country.”

Chishti labelled his campaign as a “bottom-up” one with “very few resources” and pointed out that he didn’t have any campaign managers, all of which is probably apparent from the fact that not a single of the pary’s 358 MPs had voiced their support for him.

I will not be taking my campaign any further for the leadership of our party @Conservatives as I have not been able to secure the necessary parliamentary backing. Full statement below👇 pic.twitter.com/0Dos3RmNgP

— Rehman Chishti (@Rehman_Chishti) July 12, 2022

However, one MP who certainly did have campaign managers is Sajid Javid, yet he has also announced his withdrawal from the contest, after failing to gain the required support.

Leadership hopefuls needed the backing of at least 20 MPs to get onto the first ballot for the leadership race. At 6pm, it was revealed that the likes of Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Tom Tugendhat and Liz Truss had made it onto the ballot.

NEW: Sajid Javid, whose resignation triggered the flood of departures that brought Boris Johnson down, quits race.

— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) July 12, 2022

The full list of MPs who have made it onto the first ballot is as follows: Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Tom Tugendhat, Liz Truss, Nadhim Zahawi, Jeremy Hunt, Kemi Badenoch and Suella Braverman.

The first ballot of Tory MPs takes place tomorrow. To make it through this stage, contenders will need to garner the support of at least 30 MPs.

Also on Tuesday, Boris Johnson blocked Labour’s request for a vote of no confidence in the Tory government and the Prime Minister.

Earlier in the day, Labour had announced they would be calling for a no-confidence vote in a bid to immediately removed Johnson and the Conservatives from power, and trigger a general election.

However the government has blocked the motion in an unprecedented move. According to Erskine May – the bible of parliamentary procedure – convention states that the government “always accedes to” a no-confidence vote demand from the leader of the opposition.

However it does not outline exactly what constitutes a formal no confidence vote.

Labour has accused the government of showing an “abuse of power” by blocking the vote, which they had requested to take place on Wednesday.

Keir Starmer had said the prime minister’s immediate removal from office would be in the “national interest.”

But a spokesman for the government said because Johnson had already announced he would be quitting a vote would not be a “valuable use” of MPs’ time, the BBC reports.

The government said Labour had “chosen to play politics by tabling a vote of no confidence in the government and the prime minister.”