Rishi Sunak.

Britain’s Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has risen to the defence of former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak. He has rubbished claims that Rishi Sunak engaged in “dirty tricks” and “dark arts”.

Sunak is one of the candidates in the race for the British Prime Minister’s position. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, a Boris Johnson loyalist, has accused Sunak’s team of trying to “siphon off” votes to ensure Jeremy Hunt got through because they believed Sunak would beat him in a final vote.

Speaking on Sky News, Shapps, who dropped out of the race to support Sunak, said: “It just didn’t happen. Jeremy Hunt himself has said everybody on his nomination paper is somebody who is very close to his campaign. So even he has rubbished it.”

The candidates that cleared the first hurdle of the race to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister are Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt, Jeremy Hunt, Nadhim Zahawi and Suella Braverman. Eight contenders will be on the ballot paper when all 358 Tory MPs begin voting today to elect a successor to Johnson. Another vote will take place on Thursday.

The party will continue to hold ballots until two finalists are left, and then Conservative Party members will vote for their choice, according to the Independent. Rees-Mogg refuses to be in Sunak government Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has explained why he’s backing Liz Truss for the leadership.

“Liz was the most supportive cabinet minister in getting Brexit opportunities,” he told Sky News. In a dig at Sunak, Rees-Mogg said loyalty was “extremely important” to him. He said he would refuse a Cabinet post from Sunak if he became PM. He raised the issue of Sunak's behaviour towards Boris Johnson, "his disloyalty, which means I could not possibly support him.”