Rishi Sunak

Like Britain's present politics, where Rishi Sunak's name is back in contention for the top job, Canning, too, had an Indian connection. The youngest of his four children, Charles John Canning, was the British Governor-General who quelled the Revolt of 1857 and thereafter became the first British Viceroy of India.

The Prime Minister also said he is "certain" that whoever wins the Conservative leadership election will want to make announcements about how they will "further help people" struggling to get by, amid a cost-of-living crisis, reports dpa news agency. Speaking at a Downing Street reception on Tuesday, Johnson cracked jokes about it being one of his last events in the garden at Number 10, and the next Prime Minister being either a man or a woman, amid a leadership race after he resigned earlier this year.

Forty-seven per cent of respondents to pollster Opinium sounding them out felt Truss performed better versus 38 per cent who thought likewise about Sunak. However, Sunak marginally defeated Truss, again according to Opinium, in a poll of regular voters who watched the debate. Thirty-nine per cent said Sunak won, while 38 per cent stated Truss did.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Truss, the incumbent Foreign Secretary, said that if she wins the race then she would extend the controversial Rwanda policy, despite it currently being in legal limbo, as well as increase the number of Border Force staff from 9,000 to 10,800. In an effort to deter migrants crossing the Channel to the UK, the British government announced in April that it would send some asylum seekers deemed to have entered the country illegally to Rwanda to claim refuge there.

Facing Sunak in the second stage - a ballot of the full membership of the Conservative party - will be Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who obtained 113 votes. Third in the final round of voting by MPs was Minister of State for International Trade Penny Mordaunt, who won 105 votes, but was eliminated from the further contest which will now involve the Conservative rank and file.

Sunak secured 118 votes, three more than in the fourth round, while both his challengers - Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss remained in double digits, the BBC reported. It was curtains for Nigerian-origin, former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch, who came last with 59 votes and drops out. Sunak is trailed by Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt with 92 votes, 10 more votes since Monday, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was third with 86 votes, having gained 15 votes.

Rishi Sunak is now on 115 votes and once a candidate gets 120 (just over a third of the total), it is mathematically impossible for two other candidates to get more votes. Sunak is also particularly well placed to pick up many of the 31 Tom Tugendhat votes now up for grab; Sunak, like Tugendhat, presents as a mainstream pragmatist, not an ideological rightwinger, the Guardian reported.

Johnson, who announced last week that he will step down as party leader when his replacement is decided, has said he will not publicly endorse any candidate or get involved in the increasingly bitter leadership race, the Daily Mail reported. However, Johnson has reportedly made clear in private discussions with failed leadership hopefuls that Sunak should not be his successor, it said.

Sunak, with 101 votes, maintained his lead over Trade Secretary Penny Mordaunt, who got 83 votes. In the first round on Wednesday, he had got 88 votes, with Mordaunt in second place with 67 votes. In Thursday's vote, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss still remained third with 64 votes, Equalities and Levelling Up Secretary Kemi Badenoch got 49 votes, and backbench MP Tom Tugendhat got 32 votes.