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Bloomberg
Rivals to be Britain’s next prime minister are holding private talks over joining forces in an attempt to stop the pro-Brexit favourite, Boris Johnson, running away with the contest, people familiar with the matter said.
Two of the candidates who are struggling for support — Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Health Secretary Matt Hancock — met to discuss their options after Johnson took a huge lead in race for Conservative Party leadership in the first round of voting. Hancock was weighing up whether to pull out and th-row his support behind another candidate, one person said.
Johnson’s six rivals are lagging far behind him after the initial ballot of MPs and talks between some of them have been taking place over consolidating their campaigns, according to three people close to the discussions. No deals have yet been done, the people said.
In the first round of the ballot, Johnson — who has vowed to deliver Brexit with or without a deal — won the support of 114 Tory members of Parliament out of the 313 who voted. That was far ahead of his nearest rival, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, with 43. The contest is not over and more votes among MPs are scheduled next week to narrow down the field of seven remaining candidates.