Robert Jenrick has a target on his back

After the Conservative Party's poor election result, the first votes for the new party leader have been cast. The big news is that Priti Patel has been eliminated from the race. She received only 14 votes, putting her at the bottom of the pack and ending her chances of becoming the next leader of the party.

The outcome reminded us of past leadership contests where the margins were very narrow. Back in 1997, there were just four votes between the lowest three candidates. In 2001, two candidates were tied for last place. And in 2005, having the support of only four MPs could mean the difference between being at the bottom or staying in the race. Today's results were just as close, with Patel trailing behind Mel Stride by just two votes and Tom Tugendhat by three.

Patel's biggest issue was how the public viewed her. Despite not being in the spotlight for more than two years, she was the least liked candidate in the competition. Recent polls illustrated this point clearly: Savanta's survey gave her the lowest favorability rating of all candidates (-30), while an Ipsos-Mori poll showed that she was seen as the least capable leader (-27). Many MPs believed that a party with only 121 MPs and less than a quarter of the vote couldn't risk having a leader with such negative ratings.