A Tory leadership contender on Tuesday warned the party must "not forget" the centre ground voters the Conservatives lost to the Liberal Democrats and Labour.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride is the favourite to be knocked out of the contest when the five leadership hopefuls are whittled down to four at 5pm.
However he insisted he was "quietly confident" about his chances to replace Rishi Sunak as he suggested the party should not only seek to woo back the right wing voters it lost to Reform at the general election.
"The only poll that's going to matter ultimately is the general election in four or five years time," Mr Stride told Sky News.
"And what that is going to need is somebody that can lead our party over months and over years to get the right policy platform together that we can unite around to reach out to those voters that we lost to Reform, but equally not to forget those at the centre, those that we lost to Labour and the Liberal Democrats."
The second round of Tory leadership voting is expected to take place just before 5pm.
In the first ballot ex Home Office minister Robert Jenrick, who is on the right of the party, came top of the tight race winning the support of 28 Tory MPs, ahead of Kemi Badenoch, who secured 22 votes, and James Cleverly, who got 21.
Centre ground MP Tom Tugendhat won 17 votes and Mr Stride 16. Ex Home Secretary Priti Patel was knocked out of the contest having secured the backing of just 14 Conservative MPs.
Tory MPs Greg Smith and Sir Alec Shelbrooke, who previously supported Ms Patel, today backed James Cleverly in race.
Sir Alec said Mr Cleverly has the "skills and experience needed to win back the voters that we lost in 2024 and the ability to communicate a positive Conservative vision for our country".
Appearing alongside the leadership contender in a social media video filmed near Parliament, Mr Smith said: "We need a leader that can unite us... I think you can do it. So I'm going to vote for you tomorrow."
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