Three candidates have been eliminated from the running to become the next UK Prime Minister.

Conservative Party MPs held their first round of voting in the race to become the party’s next leader this morning.

Mark Harper, Esther McVey and Andrea Leadsom were all eliminated.

With 313 MPs casting their ballots, the former UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson holds a commanding lead with 114 votes.

Jeremy Hunt took in 43 with Michael Gove on 37.

Each candidate needed at least 17 votes to get through to the next round of a contest that will see the initial field of ten whittled down to two.

The final two will then go head-to-head in hustings around the UK, before Conservative Party members vote in a postal ballot.

The new UK prime minister will be announced in the week of July 22nd.

A number of the candidates have claimed they will return to Brussels to renegotiate the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement if elected leader.

The EU has categorically rules out any renegotiation of the agreement, which includes the Irish border backstop.

European leaders have said the political declaration that complements the agreement could be re-worded.