London: Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson increased his lead in the race to become Britain's next prime minister Tuesday in a Conservative Party vote that eliminated one of his rivals and enabled upstart candidate Rory Stewart to defy expectations by remaining in the contest.
Johnson builds lead in race to be UK PM Johnson, a flamboyant former foreign secretary, won 126 of the 313 votes cast by Conservative lawmakers in their second-round of balloting.
He was seen leaving his home on Wednesday morning.
The vote left five contenders vying to be the Tory leader who will succeed Theresa May as prime minister, and all but guaranteed Johnson would be one of the two candidates competing in a runoff decided by rank-and-file party members as well as elected politicians.
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Tory lawmakers will vote again Wednesday and Thursday, eliminating at least one candidate each time.
The final two contenders will go to a postal ballot of all 160,000 Conservative Party members nationwide.
