© AP Photo/Matt Dunham/TASS

July 18 was tense for British lawmakers as it marked by the Tory leadership election round three, also meant to determine the country’s new Prime Minister to replace Boris Johnson.

There were five hopefuls left by Monday out of the 11 candidates who started the race a week ago, with another six having dropped out in the previous two rounds. Tory MPs had to choose between ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, Foreign Minister Liz Truss, Minister of State for Trade Policy Penny Mordaunt, Foreign Affairs Select Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat and former Undersecretary for Women and Equalities Kemi Badenoch. Vote returns are as follows: Rishi Sunak remains the front runner with 115 votes, followed by Mordaunt (82) and Truss (71). Kemi Badenoch was at the bottom of the race with 58 votes, while Tugendhat left it with a mere 31 votes. The outcome was announced on Monday evening by Chairman of the 1922 Committee Graham Brady.

With the next voting rounds to take place on July 19 and 20, the picture may well change, though not that much. Rishi Sunak’s lead will hardly be swayed, and the runner-up status will depend on whom Tugendhat’s voters choose to support. There have to be two Tory leader candidates left by July 21, when the House of Commons is set to take its summer holidays. Then, all the Conservative members (some 200 thousand) will vote by mail to determine the right candidate to become the country’s new Prime Minister. As per procedure, voting results are to be revealed on September 5. An interesting detail is that none of the candidates sees Boris Johnson as part of his/her future office.

Whoever wins the PM race, this person will proceed with London’s official anti-Russian course – Russophobia is too strong now in the UK, especially as regards the top tiers of power. Take Liz Truss alone, who urges a "crusade" against Russia almost on a daily basis and even says she wants to draw Russian President Vladimir Putin out for a conversation. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova fought back in her Telegram channel: "Cool your jets, Liz… We all remember how this poorly educated woman attempted to call out Sergey Lavrov in Moscow to «take the frills out him», when she did not even understand what she was talking about and confused geographical names," the spokesperson added.

Other candidates are almost as bad. For instance, Penny Mordaunt promised to lead the West's efforts against Russia over its special operation in Ukraine, if elected head of government. She even wrote a piece for The Telegraph newspaper. "As prime minister, I will step up to lead the West's response to this brutal aggression and make sure that our Ukrainian friends will ultimately achieve their freedom," Mordaunt stated. She intends to proceed with the course pursued by ex-Prime Minister Johnson to support Ukraine, and pledges to "double" cooperation with the United States, the European Union and other partners so as to coordinate military assistance for Kiev.

One of the three leaders of the race is Indian-born billionaire Rishi Sunak, whose resignation got the ball rolling as regards the fall of Boris Johnson's government. On July 5, he and Health Minister Sajid Javid quit their jobs and publicly distanced themselves from then-acting Prime Minister. This triggered a wave of government resignations, forcing Johnson to give up party leadership. Sunak, 42, is one of the 250 richest Britons, though largely thanks to his wife Akshata Murty, the Indian tech billionaire Narayana Murthy’s daughter. And this is Sunak's “soft underbelly”. However, the rest of his deeds and words indicates full-throated support for the Johnson government's policy as regards bearing pressure upon Russia in the wake of its conflict with Ukraine. In particular, Sunak urged to stop investing in companies backing President Putin in any fashion.

By the way, as revealed be a Opinium strategic insight agency survey, 24% of those watching TV debates are sure Sunak outperformed other candidates. Tugendhat and Mordaunt were second and third with 19% and 17%, respectively. Truss and Badenoch occupied the bottom places ˗ 15% and 12%. But the debates are over now. Sky News has cancelled the third scheduled televised debate in the Conservative leadership race after Sunak and Truss opted out following a bitter exchange in the first two rounds.

Russian President’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said in this regard that none of the hopefuls is a fine specimen of diplomatic reticence. Russia keeps record of all their statements, he added.

As the struggle for Tory leadership goes on, let’s wait until Wednesday evening, when there are two candidates left, to assess their chances of becoming the new British Prime Minister.