The first casualty

One down, four to go

The race for the leadership of the Conservative Party was whittled down to four candidates today as Michael Ancram was eliminated.

Mr Ancram secured just 17 votes from fellow Tory MPs, one behind the fourth-placed candidate David Davis.

Tory Leadership Vote

Michael Portillo 50

Iain Duncan Smith 42

Ken Clarke 39

David Davis 18

Michael Ancram 17 ELIMINATED

Michael Portillo again finished in first place on 50 votes, Iain Duncan Smith gained 42 and Ken Clarke came in third on 39 votes.

The battle will now go into a second round, with a ballot of the 166 Tory MPs next Tuesday.

All candidates will be focusing their attentions on trying to win over the 17 Ancram supporters, whose votes are now up for grabs.

Better to have fought and lost

Minutes after learning of his defeat, Mr Ancram emerged onto the steps outside the House of Commons.

"All my life I have always believed it's better to have fought and lost than never to have fought at all.

"I offered my colleagues a different choice to other candidates, and it was right that they were able to exercise their judgment on that, and I am very grateful for the support that I got."

He said he was looking forward to taking some "time out" and refused to say who he would be backing among the remaining candidates.

Pressing on

David Davis was quick to announce that he intended to stay in the race.

It's better to have fought and lost than never to have fought at all

Michael Ancram

"We are going to press on, we are going to go on," he told reporters at Westminster.

Supporters of Michael Portillo will be privately disappointed that he picked up only one vote from the two trailing candidates after Tuesday's vote.

Mr Portillo, referring to recent press reports, said: "In the last couple of days there have been a lot of attempts to try and distract attention from what this campaign is really about.

Major onslaught

"Despite this pretty concerted attempt my vote has gone up and I'm well pleased with that and this was a period of a major onslaught on my campaign."

Ken Clarke told reporters: "I'm pleased but it is still a wide open situation. It's all to play for and we are getting to the serious part of the business next week."

He said he was confident he would come in the first two of the final ballot to allow his name to go forward to party members.

One of Mr Duncan Smith's supporters, Julian Brazier, told reporters: "We think Iain is going to win we are getting closer and closer to cementing that crucial place in the last two."