LONDON -- British lawmaker Mel Stride became the second candidate to be kicked out of the Conservative Party leadership contest , leaving four contenders still running to lead the party after its catastrophic election defeat .

Stride received only 16 votes in a ballot of Conservative lawmakers on Tuesday, finishing last among the five contenders.

Former Home Secretary Priti Patel was eliminated last week in a previous round of voting.

The four remaining candidates – Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat -- will present their plans to delegates at the Conservative Party conference in early October, after which lawmakers will narrow down the field to two.

Party members across the country will then vote to select a winner, who will be announced on Nov. 2.

Jenrick, who resigned from his position in the government led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak due to his opposition to its immigration policies, solidified his frontrunner status, garnering 33 votes. He has courted the party’s right wing, advocating that the U.K. should restrict immigration and withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights in order to implement stricter measures to deter asylum seekers in the U.K.

Badenoch, a former business secretary, received 28 votes, while former foreign secretary Cleverly and ex-security minister Tugendhat each secured 21 votes.

The party’s previous leadership contest , in mid-2022, saw members choose Liz Truss over Sunak. Truss resigned after only 49 days in office when her tax-cutting policies shook the financial markets and weakened the value of the pound. The party then chose Sunak to succeed her.

In July, Sunak guided the Conservative Party to its worst electoral performance since 1832. The Conservatives lost over 200 seats, reducing their total to 121.