Boris Johnson remains in pole position in the battle to be crowned the leader of the Conservative party after Michael Gove was eliminated in the fifth round.

Mr Johnson topped the latest round with 160 votes and already was odds on to beone of the two candidates to get to the final run-off.

The candidate who will join him be Jeremy Hunt, who polled 77 votes compared to 75 for Gove.

Reaction on the naming of the final two in the Conservative leadership race

Eleven of the county’s MPs have swung behind the former foreign secretary, who has been top in all of the rounds to date.

We'll be charting the final twists and turns in the contest throughout the day - starting at 10am with the first of the elimination rounds.

Here's a recap of where we are after last night's vote, which saw Rory Stewart bow out after surprising many by managing to stay in the contest for so long. And here's a reminder of who Kent MPs are backing.

Stewart didn't put on a brilliant performance in the much-criticised TV debate but I don't think that was the main reason he crashed out - he peaked a little too early and some Conservative MPs may have been thinking of what happened to Labour when it put Jeremy Corbyn on the leadership ticket not expecting him to win.

Follow out live updates here:

6.35pm

And here is Tonbridge and Malling MP Tom Tugendhat, who backed Gove:

6.30pm

A clearly disappointed Michael Gove has tweeted his reaction:

6.05pm

The results of the fifth ballot for the Tory leader are in:

Boris Johnson 160

Jeremy Hunt 77

Michael Gove 75

So it will be Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt who will face the final vote from Conservative Party members to decide who will become the next leader and next Prime Minister.

5.10pm

MPs are voting to decide who will be the next party leader - or rather the two candidates who the paid-up party members will decide will succeed Theresa May. Results around 6pm

3.25pm

Whatever the outcome of the final vote today, you can't deny that Michael Gove has shown tenacity and resilience - given that his campaign started with that story about his admission that he had taken cocaine several times before entering Parliament.

Mind you, if he makes the final two, he won't get much support from teachers, who have never forgiven him for reforms they say have damaged schools and pupils and led to an exodus of staff.

2.55pm

So, what's the feeling among Conservative grass roots? Greig Baker, who is the chairman of the Canterbury Conservative Association, has this ominous warning:

“What members want - as an absolutely paramount demand of this election - is to exit by October, and the election will be about the candidate who has the best plans to do that. If we get to a situation where Labour won’t deliver Brexit and the Conservatives can’t, then I fear that at the next general election, we will see some really dramatic results.”

He warned that the Brexit party could cause upsets. “They absolutely smashed it at the European elections,” he told the BBC.

1.55pm

Defeated candidate Sajid Javid has posted a statement about his campaign saying that if his ambition and conduct in the contest has been an example to anyone "it has been worth it." I do think he has emerged with a great deal of credit - wonder if the new PM will take up the agreement to hold an investigation into Islamophobia as candidates pledged?

1.35pm

Boris Johnson supporter Craig Mackinlay has reacted to the latest result

1.05pm: FORTH ROUND RESULT:

Boris Johnson: 157

Jeremy Hunt: 59

Michael Gove; 61

Sajid Javid:37

12.10pm

There's been a lot of negative comment on the BBC's candidates debate, with viewers expressing frustration at the unruly arguments and candidates talking over each other. Before the BBC debacle, I'd argued that TV debates were here to stay as part of elections and I still think they are. The problem is getting the format right: an unstructured, free-wheeling discussion may look a good idea on paper but as Tuesday's programme showed, may not work in practice. You can read the article in this week's Kent Messenger (County).

11.55am

A quick guide to what happens today: first, we have the result of this morning's elimination round at about 1pm; the candidate with the lowest score drops out; then we'll move on to a second knockout round with a vote taking place between 3pm and 5pm that will determine the final two to go forward to a run-off - the result of this will be around 6pm

11.25am

It was a pretty remote possibility anyway, given that it was ruled out by the Davies Commission but Medway MPs used the leadership contest to extract a commitment from Boris Johnson that he wouldn't resurrect his contentious airport plan 'Boris Island' in return for their support for his candidacy. Let's hope they got something in writing...

11.05am

Away from the leadership contest and the promises and pledges being made, here's an issue that the government will come under pressure to address once things are back to normal - if they ever will get back to normal - and it's a familiar one: Kent County Council says it is short of £6.1m in the costs of looking after unaccompanied child asylum seekers + is appealing to the government to cover the shortfall.

10.35am

There is likely to be a huge amount of manoeuvring behind the scenes by the four camps as there are all sorts of possible outcomes: Boris definitely doesn't want Gove but I suspect Gove wouldn't mind getting Boris. Boris won't mind Hunt; Hunt would probably prefer not to face Boris.

Anyway, here's Boris in 'taking nothing for granted' mode:

10am

MPs start voting in the first of today's elimination rounds where the four remaining candidates are out to persuade enough of their colleagues to avoid being dropped. A second vote will take place in the afternoon to determine the final two who will be contesting the leadership ballot.

8.20am This is how Rory Stewart reacted to his defeat