Kent MP Tom Tugendhat has been knocked out of the race to become the next leader of the Conservative Party.

The Tonbridge and Malling representative failed to win the necessary support to make it through to the final four after Tory MPs cast their votes today.

He received 31 votes, behind Rishi Sunak (115), Penny Mordaunt (82), Liz Truss (71) and Kemi Badenoch (58).

Reacting to the result, he tweeted: "Although it wasn’t to be today, I am immensely proud of the positive vision we put forward for our country.

"Thank you to all those who supported me and believed in #ACleanStart. This is only the beginning!"

In a statement, he added: “I want to thank my team, colleagues and, most of all, the British people for their support. I have been overwhelmed by the response we have received across the country.

"People are ready for a clean start and our party must deliver on it and put trust back into politics.

“I wish the remaining candidates well and look forward to continuing to serve the British people and fully supporting the next leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.”

Meanwhile, Kent MPs still remain largely tight-lipped about where their support lies.

Fellow Tory leadership hopeful Rehman Chishti and Ashford's Damian Green had backed Mr Tugendhat, while Folkestone and Hythe's Damian Collins is supporting Ms Mordaunt and Faversham's Helen Whately is behind Mr Sunak.

Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Gordon Henderson says he consulted Tory members in his constituency and asked them which two names they would like on the final ballot paper.

"In order of preference they chose Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss so I have cast my votes accordingly," he added.

Chatham and Aylesford MP Tracey Crouch said: “I haven’t made a public declaration yet but in the run-off stages I am voting to ensure that we have two finalists who are moderate in their views.”

KentOnline political editor Paul Francis gives his analysis of the result

In the end it was – despite an energetic campaign – beyond the reach of Tom Tugendhat to seize the prize of the keys to Downing Street.

You couldn't deny the campaign was carefully planned and executed. The Tonbridge and Malling MP cleverly positioned himself as the outsider who could make a clean break with the old politics and a fresh start with the new politics.

It helped that the four other contenders were inextricably entwined with Boris Johnson's disgraced period in office, something he pointed out regularly.

He chose to announce his candidacy in the pages of the Daily Telegraph.

In an article directed as much to party activists out in true blue Tory heartland as to the 350-odd Conservative MPs he needed to support his bid, he depicted himself as the change candidate, vowing to break free from the old regime and provide the country with the leadership it needed.

The former Army officer wrote: “I have served before – in the military, and now in parliament.

"Now I hope to answer the call once again as prime minister. It’s time for a clean start. It’s time for renewal.”

The emphasis on service, duty and restoring the public trust in politicians were themes he returned to many times.

He recruited the Ashford MP Damian Green to his campaign team and adopted a strategy designed to appeal to all wings of the party.

Like all candidates, he outlined a manifesto and a 10-year economic plan and inevitably had to deal with the questions about his lack of experience as a politician who had not held ministerial office.

He countered by pointing out that he had served for 10 years in the military, leading troops in Afghanistan and Iraq – experience that perhaps was an asset given the toxic internal feuding in the parliamentary party.

A turning point came in the first televised hustings event on Channel 4, when each of the candidates were asked whether Boris Johnson was an honest man.

As his fellow contenders scrambled in the verbal undergrowth for some kind of equivocal answer, he simply shook his head to indicate ‘no’ – and drew lengthy applause.

Opinion polls put him ahead of his rivals but ironically that was not necessarily helpful.

What mattered was the support of MPs and they have proved more circumspect, viewing the former soldier as untested in the frontline of politics.

This did not mean they didn't regard him as someone with ability but other political heavyweights better placed to deal with heavy weight issues.

And on Brexit, the issue that runs like a sore through the Conservative party, he has been a remainer – a position that does not align with some in the parliamentary party at Westminster.

On the issues facing Kent, he backed the government’s policy on using Rwanda to process claims by would-be asylum seekers, as did his rivals.

Having started his campaign in the pages of the Daily Telegraph, he ended it with the endorsement of the influential Mumsnet group – a measure, perhaps, of how far he has come.

If it did not take him over the finishing line first – or second – he will at least have learned lessons from the electoral campaign, ready for the next time.