UK Conservative leadership: Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Tom Tugendhat, Nadhim Zahawi, Jeremy Hunt in race

Former chancellor Rishi Sunak remains a firm favourite to become Britain’s new Prime Minister … but a surprise contender has emerged.

Britain's Conservative leadership candidates (clockwise from top left) Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Nadhim Zahawi, Kemi Badenoch, Jeremy Hunt, Suella Braverman and Tom Tugendhat.

Eight candidates will undergo several rounds of voting by Conservative politicians in the coming days after surviving an initial cull under Tory party rules.

Favourite Rishi Sunak, the ex-chancellor, is pitted against four women – Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman – and three other men in Tom Tugendhat, Nadhim Zahawi and Jeremy Hunt in a 24 hour race to boost their support from at least 30 fellow MPs.

The campaigning and lobbying appears to be centred around three key issues: the extent of tax cuts; wokery; and the candidates’ historical stance on Brexit.

Already, the anti-woke Brexit candidate, attorney-general Suella Braverman, has had a public spat with Penny Mordaunt, considered a front runner within the Conservative membership which will vote, by post, between the final two candidates.

Ms Braverman also refused to step aside for the controversial Home Secretary Priti Patel, another of the right leaning figures.

According to ConservativeHome, Ms Mordaunt – who is desperately repositioning her 2018 statement that “trans women are women”, would win a run-off against each of the remaining candidates even though she voted Remain in the political Brexit war.

Curiously, the poll showed that her closest contender would not be Mr Sunak – whose reputation has been harmed by his sensitivity about his billionaire personal finances and a legal family tax minimisation scheme – but rather Ms Badenoch, the least well-known of the candidates.

Born in London but raised in Nigeria, Ms Badenoch, 42, returned to England as a 16-year-old. The former equalities minister, who is fiercely pro-free speech, has been the biggest mover and shaker in the past few days. At her launch on Tuesday she posted signs on the toilets, separating them for men and women, and she has long railed against public servants who wanted to introduce gender neutral toilets in new building developments.

In a hard hitting speech on Tuesday, Ms Badenoch said: “The truth that limited government – doing less but better – is the best way to restore faith in government has been forgotten, as we pandered to pressure groups and caved in to every campaigner with a moving message. That has made the government agenda into a shopping list of disconnected, unworkable and unsustainable policies.”

Ms Badenoch called for a streamlined school curriculum and having police “focus on neighbourhood crime, not waste time and resources worrying about hurt feelings online”.

Nadhim Zahawi, the current chancellor, has been attacked for his disloyalty to Mr Johnson: initially accepting the Cabinet position but within a day, not giving the prime minister his support and demanding he resign.

Mr Tugendhat, a remainer and staunch China critic, has been attracting strong support from a similar pool of supporters that have backed the foreign secretary, Ms Truss, who also voted remain but has insisted she would continue to implement Brexit.

Ms Truss received a boost with the backing of some of the party’s heavyweights Jacob Rees-Mogg and Mr Johnson’s closest ally, Nadine Dorries.

Mr Hunt, who made the final two in the previous leadership challenge against Mr Johnson, said he was confident he had at least 30 backers to survive the next round. But there was controversy about where those votes were coming from, with Mr Hunt rejecting suggestions he was in cahoots with Mr Sunak’s campaign, which was in turn accused of siphoning votes to him. This strategy would be to engineer the final two between Mr Sunak and Mr Hunt – a run-off that Mr Sunak would easily win.

Over the coming hours, the Brexiteer group known as the European Research Group will meet to decide which of the remaining candidates they will support.

The first cut off at 6pm Tuesday (3am AEST) saw Sajid Javid, the former health secretary, drop out of the leadership race just moments before nominations closed, possibly because he was unable to get the required 20 supporters.

Another candidate, Rehman Chishti, also withdrew after having had no support other than himself. However, he has raised his profile immeasurably after promising “aspirational conservatism, fresh ideas, a fresh team for a fresh start”.

Mr Javid, whose decision to quit the government a week ago began an avalanche of resignations which forced the prime minister Boris Johnson to stand down, said: “I have set out the values and policies I think are right for the future of our great country. I believe the party must now look outwards, not inwards, if we are to win again.”