Tories are braced for more blood on the carpet today as another hopeful is knocked out of the leadership race – with Liz Truss allies begging rivals to recognise the ‚reality‘ they cannot win.

The results are due to be revealed at 3pm after another frenzied day at Westminster that saw the Foreign Secretary officially launch her campaign insisting she can be ‚trusted to deliver‘ after taking on the EU over Brexit and Vladimir Putin over Ukraine.

In a dig at frontrunner Rishi Sunak she said she had been ‚loyal‘ to Boris Johnson, and it was not the time for ‚business as usual economic management‘.