Conservative MPs are orchestrating against a potential leadership campaign by Boris Johnson, with several talking of resigning the whip if he were to become party leader.
With Tories convinced that Theresa May’s days in No 10 are numbered, MPs are feverishly discussing who will seek to replace her, how organised the teams are and whether a general election would be necessary.
Johnson is the current favourite of Brexit-backing Tory activists, who will pick the leader out of a final two candidates. However, the former London mayor would first have to clear the hurdle of convincing Conservative MPs to put him on the final list of two.
One minister said she would leave the party if Johnson and his supporters, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, took over the Conservatives.
Another minister said he knew of five or six Conservatives who were openly saying they were so opposed to a Johnson premiership that they could not stay in the party run by him and a group of Brexit ultras.
Anna Soubry, the former Tory minister who quit to join the new Independent Group, said she believed “people will leave” if Johnson were to become prime minister.
An adviser involved in one of the campaigns said: You have cabinet ministers going round offering people jobs and May has not even resigned yet. It is fair to say the race is already under way.
Johnson could face competition from Dominic Raab, Esther McVey, David Davis, Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom among the Brexiters when there is a leadership contest, which MPs believe May could be forced to announce soon after passing her withdrawal bill or if it fails comprehensively for a third or fourth time. Meanwhile, Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid and Liz Truss are among the former remainers who are readying their campaigns.
Backers of Johnson believe MPs could swing behind him if they believe an election is not far away, because he is already a household name to put up against Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn.