text: Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption John Pienaar reports on the background and aspirations of the two contenders 
   
   Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom will battle it out to become the next leader of the Conservative Party after Michael Gove was eliminated from the contest. 
   
   After the second MPs' ballot, Home Secretary Mrs May finished with 199 votes, Energy Minister Mrs Leadsom 84 and Mr Gove, the justice secretary, 46. 
   
   Conservative members will now decide the winning candidate, with the result due on 9 September. 
   
   The winner will become the UK's second female prime minister. 
   
   Mr Cameron resigned after finishing on the losing side in the UK's EU referendum, in which there was a vote for the UK to leave. 
   
   The results were announced at Westminster by Conservative MP Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee. 
   
   There had originally been five contenders to succeed Mr Cameron, with MPs voting in two rounds to get that number down to two. 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Theresa May: We need proven leadership to negotiate the best deal 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Andrea Leadsom calls for 'honourable' campaigning 
   
   The contest now moves to its final stage with the Conservative Party's 150,000-strong membership deciding between Mrs May, a Remain campaigner with a long track record in government, and Mrs Leadsom, a leading light of the Brexit campaign who has stressed her City and business background. 
   
   Speaking after the results were announced, Mrs May said she had secured support from all wings of the Conservative Party and pledged to bring the Tories together. 
   
   She promised "strong, proven leadership" to negotiate the UK's departure from the EU, and to "make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few but for every one of us". 
   
   Conservative MP Tim Loughton, Mrs Leadsom's campaign manager, said she would bring a "huge and fresh skills base" to Downing Street if elected. 
   
   He played down her lack of cabinet experience, saying she would have "no problem stepping up to the job" having had a long career outside politics, adding: "She has done things outside of this place on so many different levels." 
   
   Analysis by Nick Robinson, Radio 4's Today presenter 
   
   Now we know. The name of Britain's next prime minister will be either Andrea or Theresa. 
   
   Two women. Two Tories. Two potential leaders who - whether they like it or not, whether the country likes it or not - are destined to be dubbed the new Maggie. 
   
   That though is where the similarities between May and Leadsom end. One - of course - made the case, ever so quietly, for Remain. The other argued, ever so passionately, for Leave. 
   
   One is highly experienced - the longest-serving home secretary for more than a century. The other would be the least experienced prime minister this country has had since Pitt the Younger. 
   
   Not only has Andrea Leadsom had no Cabinet experience. Unlike David Cameron or Tony Blair, she has not served an apprenticeship as leader of the opposition. 
   
   But this run-off is about much more than that. May and Leadsom are figureheads for two very different visions of Conservatism, backed by different factions which have been at war in the party for a quarter of a century. Read Nick's full article 
   
   Mr Gove said he was "naturally disappointed" not to have made it to the final two, describing the remaining contenders as "formidable politicians". 
   
   He welcomed the fact that the UK would be getting a second female prime minister - after Margaret Thatcher - and called for a "civilised, inclusive, positive and optimistic debate". 
   
   Mr Gove did not announce backing for either candidate, but several of his key backers, including Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and Culture Minister Ed Vaizey, switched their support to Mrs May. 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Andrea Leadsom has "real steel" and "real compassion" - Iain Duncan Smith 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Amber Rudd doubts whether her junior colleague, Andrea Leadsom, has the experience to run the country 
   
   Anyone wanting to vote has to have been a member of the Conservative Party by 9 June. 
   
   Polling expert Professor John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, said the electorate for the contest represented a "very distinctive slice of Britain". 
   
   They would be mostly over 50, disproportionately male, and "overwhelmingly middle class", he said. 
   
   Conservative leadership election 
   
   Ballot papers sent out mid-August 
   
   Ballot closes at noon on Friday 9 September. Votes will be counted electronically. 
   
   Conservative Party members can vote by postal ballot or online. 
   
   "Qualifying party members" of more than three months' standing can vote. In practice, anyone who joined the party by 9 June. 
   
   The spending limit set by the Conservative 1922 Committee is £135,000. 
   
   Hustings to be organised across the UK. 
   
   Guide to the contest 
   
   He predicted the Brexit debate would "play a role" in the contest, but not a defining one. About two thirds of Tory members voted to leave, but a higher proportion saw a candidate's leadership credentials and vision for Britain as the most important factor, he added. 
   
   Mrs Leadsom's departmental boss, Energy Secretary Amber Rudd, is backing Mrs May and took aim at her junior ministerial colleague's lack of government experience. 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Winner "will lead country well" - Michael Gove 
   
   She said: "The fact that she hasn't had experience at the Cabinet table, hasn't had much experience even as a junior minister - let's face it she's had just two years - I do think is a problem at this stage." 
   
   But one of Mrs Leadsom's high-profile backers, former worker and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, said she would "develop" over the coming weeks and get "better and better and better". 
   
   Mrs Leadsom is also supported by former London mayor and one-time leadership favourite Boris Johnson, who said she would replace the "absurd gloom in some quarters with a positive confident and optimistic approach". 
   
   UKIP leader Nigel Farage said on Twitter he was backing her. ||||| For the first time since Margaret Thatcher stepped down in 1990, the next British prime minister will be a woman. Here is what you need to know about Andrea Leadsom and Theresa May. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post) 
   
   For the first time since Margaret Thatcher stepped down in 1990, the next British prime minister will be a woman. Here is what you need to know about Andrea Leadsom and Theresa May. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post) 
   
   The race to be Britain’s next prime minister was whittled to two on Thursday, with Conservative Party lawmakers ensuring that the country will have a female head of government — the nation’s first since Margaret Thatcher stepped down more than a quarter-century ago. 
   
   The contest will pit the home affairs secretary, Theresa May, against Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom in a race that features contenders who were on opposite sides of last month’s European Union referendum. 
   
   In a vote among 330 Tory members of Parliament, May was on top, with 199 votes, compared with 84 for Leadsom. A third candidate, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, was knocked out after securing 46 votes. 
   
   [Meet Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom, the two women vying to be Britain’s next prime minister] 
   
   Gove had upended British politics last week by jumping into the race for prime minister at the last possible moment. The move forced the favorite, former London mayor Boris Johnson, from the contest even before he had entered. But Gove’s unexpected betrayal also angered many Conservative lawmakers and prompted them to search for an alternative candidate to stand against the new front-runner, May. 
   
   Speaking at the annual Conservative Party conference on Tuesday, Home Secretary Theresa May said Britain would not accept a European Union-wide immigration and asylum policy “in a thousand years.” (YouTube/Conservatives) 
   
   That turned out to be Leadsom, a relative unknown in British politics who serves as a junior minister but has never been a member of the cabinet — normally a prerequisite for holding the nation’s top job. 
   
   Leadsom begins the contest as a decided underdog against the better-known May, who dominated Thursday’s vote and an earlier round of balloting held Tuesday. 
   
   [Leadsom backers stage Britain’s most awkward political rally] 
   
   But May will need to persuade the party’s rank and file, who will take the summer to choose a winner. 
   
   She wasted no time Thursday making her case, which has focused on the notion that she is the only one who can bring together the party’s warring “remain” and “leave” factions. Leadsom draws her support principally from the leave camp. 
   
   “We need proven leadership to negotiate the best deal for leaving the European Union, to unite our party and our country,” May said just moments after the vote. 
   
   The winner will be announced Sept. 9 and will replace David Cameron. He announced his plans to step down late last month, just a day after he was unable to persuade the country to back the remain campaign in a referendum on Britain’s E.U. membership. 
   
   U.K. Conservative Party leadership hopeful Andrea Leadsom told an audience in London July 7 that “no one needs to fear our decision to leave the E.U.” Leadsom is one of two candidates still in the running to be Britain’s next prime minister. (AP) 
   
   Either Leadsom or May will be Britain’s first female prime minister since Thatcher, who led the country from 1979 to 1990, and the second in British history. 
   
   With Hillary Clinton topping presidential polls in the United States and Chancellor Angela Merkel continuing to govern Germany, three of the West’s leading countries could all be governed by women by January — a historic first. 
   
   And in Scotland, a woman — First Minister Nicola Sturgeon — could become a chief antagonist for the new British prime minister. Scotland favored remaining in the European Union, and Sturgeon could lead Scottish efforts to seek another independence bid from the United Kingdom to stay in the E.U. fold. 
   
   It is just one front in the tricky post-referendum aftermath facing May or Leadsom. 
   
   Both candidates have vowed to follow through with a British exit from the European Union — popularly known as Brexit — by triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the never-before-used mechanism by which countries can leave the 28-member bloc. 
   
   [A quick Brexit or a delayed departure?] 
   
   But they disagree about when to move. May has suggested that it will not happen this year. Leadsom has said she will act as quickly as possible, as European leaders have demanded. “We need to get on with it,” she recently told the BBC. 
   
   Leadsom and May were on opposite sides of the E.U. debate. Leadsom, a former bank executive, emerged from relative obscurity by taking a leading role in the leave campaign. 
   
   May officially backed remain, but in practice she largely sat on the sidelines. 
   
   She has long held strongly Euroskeptic views and has said there will be no rerun of the referendum if she becomes prime minister. “Brexit means Brexit,” she said last week when she announced her candidacy. 
   
   Seeking to assuage any doubts among leave backers, she has at times even taken a harder line than her pro-Brexit rivals. This week, for instance, she refused to guarantee that E.U. citizens living in Britain will be allowed to stay once the country has left the bloc, saying the matter is up for negotiation. Other contenders, including Leadsom, took a more conciliatory line, saying that no one would be kicked out of the country because of Brexit. 
   
   Despite May’s maneuvering, Leadsom has sought to raise questions about the home secretary’s dedication to the Brexit cause. Leadsom has argued that the country can trust only a true leave champion to drive the hard bargain with Brussels on cutting ties. 
   
   May, who has been responsible for the country’s internal security as home secretary since 2010, has suggested that Leadsom lacks the experience necessary for the country’s top job. May has pointed to her own record of negotiating tough security deals with her E.U. counterparts as evidence that she is uniquely prepared for the task ahead. 
   
   Both Leadsom and May are to the political right of Cameron. May has taken a hard line on immigration, saying in a speech last year that mass arrivals threatened the country’s “cohesion.” Leadsom, meanwhile, opposed the country’s legalization of same-sex marriage — a move that Cameron championed. 
   
   Of the two, Leadsom is considered more ideological, while May is seen as relatively pragmatic. 
   
   Now that Conservative members of Parliament have picked the two finalists, it will be up to the party’s 150,000 rank-and-file members to select the leader to govern this nation of 65 million. 
   
   Because the Conservatives won an absolute majority in Parliament in last year’s general election, they do not need to go back to the public to seek a mandate for a new prime minister. Instead, party members will vote by mail through the summer. 
   
   [Immigrants feel caught in the middle after Britain’s E.U. snub] 
   
   Polls show that May is well ahead of Leadsom among Conservative members, just as she was among the party’s parliamentary delegation. 
   
   The vote will come as the Brexit aftershocks continue to reverberate, with markets reeling and the pound down to its lowest level in three decades. Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser to the investment giant Allianz, told Reuters on Thursday that the currency still has a long way to fall — and could reach parity with the dollar if British politicians do not move quickly to restore stability. 
   
   Leadsom said Thursday that the pound’s plummet is not necessarily a cause for concern, noting that it will help British exporters. In a speech in central London, Leadsom said she wants to “banish the pessimists” and “spread prosperity to every corner of our country.” 
   
   The speech was billed as a major economic policy address, but she gave few details of her plans. 
   
   Leadsom stayed in the hunt for the prime minister’s post despite a flurry of scrutiny over apparent exaggerations on her résumé, which suggested that she had spent years working as a fund manager for a major investment firm. Leadsom acknowledged Thursday that she had not managed funds, but she insisted that she had held a senior management job at Invesco Perpetual. 
   
   Johnson, who backed Leadsom in a move widely perceived as revenge against Gove, issued a statement Wednesday calling her “well placed to win and replace the absurd gloom in some quarters with a positive, confident and optimistic approach.” 
   
   He also celebrated the fact that the Tories will have been responsible for both of Britain’s female prime ministers, calling the center-right party “the most progressive party in Britain.” 
   
   Karla Adam in London and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report. 
   
   Read more: 
   
   Exiling Britain, Europe’s remaining leaders meet to safeguard fractured union 
   
   What a real ‘Brexit Britain’ would look like 
   
   Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
target: – Margaret Thatcher was the first, but she'll no longer be the only female prime minister the UK has ever had. Michael Gove has been eliminated from the ballot to become the next Conservative Party leader, leaving Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom as the final two candidates. The winner will become the UK's next prime minister, the BBC reports. Home Affairs Secretary May (a Remain supporter) led the most recent round of voting Thursday with 199 votes, followed by Energy Minister Leadsom (a Brexit supporter) with 84 and Gove with 46. Conservative MPs will decide on a winner, who will take over the job from David Cameron on Sept. 9, the Washington Post reports.