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Boris Johnson. 160   Michael Gove. 75  Jeremy  Hunt  77.   Gove is eliminated and Johnson versus Hunt will be put to a vote of the Conservative party membership.

The latest results are as follows: Boris Johnson 157; Michael Gove 61; Jeremy Hunt 59;

Sajid Javid  34. He is now eliminated and the vote to  choose the final two results to be announced in about a half hour.

Third round results are as follows: Michael Gove 51 (up from 41); Boris Johnson 143 (up from 126) Jeremy Hunt 54( up from 47);Sajid Javid ( 38 up from 33); Rory Stewart 27 down from 37 . Stewart is eliminated. Votes needed to capture a majority of MPs 157. So Boris Johnson could accomplish this by winning 14 of the 27 Stewart votes, but that seems a bit unlikely since they disagreed so strongly on Brexit. Another possibility although also unlikely is for one of Gove or Hunt to withdraw and back the other and possibly also Javid to withdraw or be eliminated in the next round. This would free up a total of 116 votes . Assuming most of them go to either Hunt or Gove this would result in a very close contest between Boris Johnson and his leading opponent Gove/Hunt at least among Tory MPs.

The results of round two leadership voting in the UK for the Tory leadership and Priministerial prize  are as follows. Each candidate needs 33 votes to continue into the third round.Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson 126, Current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt 46, Environment Secretary Michael Gove 41 ,International Developmental Secretary Rory Stewart 37,  Home Secretary Sajid Javid 33 and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab 30. Raab is now eliminated. Johnson has moved closer to the critical number of 157 which is the number of votes at a minimum to capture the majority of MPs in his camp prior to the popular party vote in the final round run off against whoever emerges as his final round opponent. Johnson would need to capture all of Raab‘s 30 votes to do it in the next round and one of the votes now sitting with the other candidates. One of the lower vote candidates like Javid or perhaps though less likely Rory Stewart also might drop out before the next round if they calculate they will be rewarded by Johnson. This would free up 100 votes for the next round from  Raab, Stewart  and Javid and the odds of Johnson winning at least 31 of them in the next round are much better.He won only 12 of the 50 freed up after the first round elimination and voluntary departure of Hancock. but if that trend continues he‘ ll come very close or win the prize by winning 31 of the 100 freed up votes. Second place will likely go to Hunt or Gove who will be the alternative choice in the party membership vote in the final round.

The BBC hosted a spirited debate with the five candidates this evening. the debate ranged over Brexit on October 31st;repairing the damage to social policy and education from Tory austerity policies and budget cuts; on tax policy and relieving poverty; on multiculturalism and Islamophobia and antisemitism in the U.K. and the Irish backstop, as well as other leading issues.Rory Stewart stood out as the only candidate who stressed that promising to leave without a deal was unacceptable and he committed to not doing this. He also called out the other candidates for their lack of honesty in promising  to leave if necessary without a deal if need be.

The diversity of the candidates  in terms of religious faith, background and ancestry was also revealing .It reflects the good progress of modern multicultural diverse Britain despite these difficult times. Johnson had a Moslem great grandfather, Jeremy Hunt is married to a Chinese  person and they have three children together .Javid is a Moslem whose father was a bus driver and Gove was adopted at a very young age by loving parents of moderate means. With five men but no women still in the race there is further progress to be made in the future.

Boris Johnson with 114 votes from his parliamentary colleagues -actually 113 since it is a certainty that Johnson voted for himself- has leaped into a commanding lead. Of the ten candidates 3 have now been eliminated and a fourth Matt Hancock with 20 votes has quit the race. The others eliminated because they had fewer than 17 votes were Andrea Leadsom 11 votes, Esther McVey 9, and Marc Harper 10. The second place was captured by foreign minister, Jeremy Hunt with 43 followed by Michael Gove with 37, Dominic Raab with 27  Sajid Javid with 23, and Rory Stewart with 19. According to the rules on the next ballot those who get fewer than 33 votes will be eliminated  Subsequent rounds are scheduled for June 19-20th  Candidates with the lowest vote are eliminated until there are only two left whose names will be on the ballot voted by all 160000 eligible party members  with the winner announced on July 22nd.But whoever places second will have a tough battle against Johnson who seems to be favoured by many British Tories for his style , rhetoric and posturing. If he is chosen his promise to accomplish Brexit by October 1st will be severely tested.

The results of the European election as of Monday May 27,2019 show the biggest winner is the new Brexit party headed by Nigel Farage the UK nationalist anti EU English politician. his party won 29 seats and got more than 5 million votes, out of the 17.2 million cast and over 31 % of the vote.The two major parties will be worried that this swing in the new party‘s favour might affect the next general election.

Somewhat behind but doing very well were the pro remain anti Brexit Liberal Democrats who won  3.4   million votes and 20.3 percent of the vote and 16 seats. The Labour Party won just 10 seats and over 2.3 million votes followed by the Greens who won 7 seats with 2 million votes. Then in fifth place the governing tory party with just 4 seats just ahead of the Scottish Nationalists with 3 seats and Plaid Cymru and the DUP with one seat each. Overall voters who voted for pro remain parties outnumber those who voted for Brexit parties . Since Labour sought to straddle the two positions some of its vote is pro Brexit and some pro remain but if they and the Tory vote are left aside the voters who voted remain parties significantly outnumber the Brexiteers . The Guardian estimates by a margin of 50 % to 47 % however the voter turnout  under 38 % is rather low compared to a general election or referendum so much is still unclear.For example the last general election in the UK had a turnout of just under 69 %.

Overall in the rest of Europe the two largest blocks the conservative Christian democrats and. the socialist social democratic bloc lost some ground to the Greens and the nationalist parties who each gained seats at the expense of the two largest parties. the Liberal coalition parties to which the Lib Dems belong also gained seats and will likely influence policy alongside the Greens who won 69 seats. In France Marine Le Pen‘s nationalist party edged out President Macron 22 to 21 seats.The Greens doubled their seat number to 12, France insoumise, a socialist ecologists anti globalization party won 6 seats and les Republicans a right coalition won 8 seats and the left coalition won 5 seats. Nationalist parties also did well in Sweden, Italy Hungary and Poland. In Germany the ruling CDU-CSU coalition won  29 seats, the Grune, Green party20 seats, the SPD 16 seats , the right wing nationalist AfD 11 seats, die Link the radical left  6 seats the FDP the free Democratic Party 5 seats with 7 smaller parties winning 1 or 2 seats each. The next few years will be an interesting test of the resilience of the centrist parties  against the onslaught of the more radical left and right nationalist parties.Governing will require lots of compromise.

In Italy the Northern League right wing won 28 seats and 33.4 % of the vote while the PD Democratic Party centre left 22% of vote won 18 seats and M5S five star party 14  seats  ,the FI7 Forza Italia 7 seats the FDI 5 a right wing party fratelli d‘Italia with a connection to a descendant of Mussolini and the SVP 1.

In Spain the PSOE-PSC  the Spanish socialist workers party won 20 seats; the PP the conservative popular party won 12 seats; the C‘s a liberal citizens party won 7 seats, the Catalonian coalition party won 6, another coalition party won 3 seats and Vox a right wing party won 3 seats.Two Catalan nationalist parties won 3 seats