James Cleverly and Dame Priti Patel (Image: PA/GETTY)
James Cleverly is the most popular leadership candidate among Tory members, according to the first major poll of the contest.
The shadow home secretary was backed by 26% of Conservative members when asked their first choice to replace Rishi Sunak.
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Ex-home secretary Dame Priti Patel was second with 20%, while shadow housing secretary Kemi Badenoch was third on 14%.
Shadow security minister Mr Tugendhat was next with 11%, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick on 10% and shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride on 4%.
Mr Cleverly, a centrist candidate, also beat his rivals when members were asked who they preferred in head-to-heads.
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The closest was with Ms Patel, a long-standing Eurosceptic on the right of the party, which he won by 45% to 39%.
The poll of 805 Tory members, which was commissioned by Mr Cleverly's campaign, was carried out by Techne UK from August 2-12.
Separate polling by YouGov found that centrist Mr Tugendhat was the favourite among the wider public.
His net favourability score was minus 12 and he was the only leadership contender to beat Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer whose rating stands as minus 14 in the survey conducted on August 13-14.
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The six senior Tories, who secured the support of 10 MPs in order to enter the leadership race, are battling it out to replace Mr Sunak as the Conservative Party seeks to rebuild after its worst-ever general election result last month.
MPs will vote off two of the contenders so the final four go to the party's conference in Birmingham next month to make their leadership pitch.
Conservative MPs will then eliminate two more, with the final pair going to a ballot of Tory members with the winner announced on November 2.