Reader TTS

The former Foreign Secretary took a mammoth 143 votes in Wednesday’s third round of voting which saw Rory Stewart eliminated from the contest. Jeremy Hunt received 54 and Mr Gove 41, while

Sajid Javid came in last with 38 votes. Mr Johnson has been the favourite to win the contest shortly after Theresa May announced her resignation and deputy director of think tank, The UK in

a Changing Europe, Dr Simon Usherwood has praised his strategy.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, Dr Usherwood insisted that Mr Johson has crucially focused on gaining support from the MPs rather than concentrating on the public.

Although Mr Johnson will have to appeal to the 160,000 or so Tory members in the final two run off, for now, his strategy of remaining out of the limelight has worked.

Dr Sherwood said: “He won the ground war, he has a good team and that’s all that matters.

“The public image doesn’t really matter at this stage of the voting.

READ MORE: Johnson’s Brexit deadline doubted as PM favourite 'hardly' disagrees 

“It makes more sense to work on the MPs.

Mr Johnson chose only to attend the second of the two debates, and although his rivals tried to point his lack of appearance on Sunday's Channel 4 debate, Dr Usherwood has maintained that it

was key for the Tory MP not to make any more public mistakes.

Speaking on Channel 4’s debate Dr Usherwood added: “Sunday’s debate didn’t really offer anything new anyway.

READ MORE: Farage left in stitches as Remainers back Boris for surprising reason

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You

can unsubscribe at any time. Read our Privacy Policy

“The only thing it told us that there was a degree of fatalism.

The final four candidates will now face a fourth round of voting on Thursday wherein the two final candidates will be determined.

The news of his overwhelming victory on Wednesday comes as supporters of Mr Johnson will mount an operation to derail Michael Gove’s leadership hopes according to The Daily Telegraph.

Such is the venom towards Mr Gove following his betrayal of Mr Johnson in the 2016 leadership contest, that one supporter told the paper that they don’t want the Environment Secretary to be

beaten but “humiliated”.

See today's front and back pages, download the newspaper, order back issues and use the historic Daily Express newspaper archive.