Within hours Rishi Sunak could be declared as the next British Prime Minister after Boris Johnson dramatically withdrew from the race but he had never officially entered.

Penny Mordaunt is still holding on and it remains unclear if she has the 100 votes needed by 2pm on Monday to reserve a place in the ballot.

Should Mordaunt fall short by the 2pm deadline or if she pulls out then Sunak will then be declared as the next Prime Minister, as it stands at the time of writing Mordaunt has 90 votes against the former Chancellor who has 186 votes.

On Sunday a campaign source claimed that Mordaunt is the candidate that Labour fears the most.

Read more related news:

Rishi Sunak clear 1/25 favourite to be next Tory leader as Boris Johnson drops out of race

Blackford urges Starmer ‘to trigger a motion of no-confidence in this disastrous Tory government’ to spark ‘a general election’

Starmer warns the Tory ‘psychodrama’ has spooked the markets who are ‘now reacting to yet more uncertainty’

Pound rises and gilt yields fall as Sunak looks set for Number 10

The source said, “Penny is the unifying candidate who is most likely to keep the wings of the Conservative Party together and polling shows that she is the most likely candidate to hold on to the seats the Conservative Party gained in 2019.”

Tory MP Tobias Ellwood who is supporting Sunak has dismissed calls for a general election to be called.

Ellwood told the BBC, “The country does not want further economic instability.

“And what you’d get if there was a general election is it would not be clear as to which direction the country would go, there’d be greater upheaval, the markets would then be spooked again.

“There would probably be a run on the pound, that would see interest rates climb (and) mortgages go up as well. This isn’t the leadership the country wants.”