Names in the frame as PM’s fair-weather friends and plotters wait in the wings

THERESA MAY faced the no confidence vote in the knowledge that Boris Johnson was being tipped as the favourite to take her place.

Her former Foreign Secretary – who had also been heavily tipped as David Cameron’s successor in 2016 but ruled himself out on that occasion when Michael Gove threw his hat in the ring – was placed at 4-1 by William Hill and Ladbrokes. Mr Gove himself was a more distant runner, at 8-1.

Another of Mrs May’s departed Cabinet colleagues, the former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, was given similar odds by one bookmaker but was less heavily fancied by others.

Mr Raab, a prominent Brexiteer in the referendum campaign, resigned from the Cabinet last month, saying he could not support Mrs May’s eventual deal.

One of the most divisive periods in post-war politics saw a raft of other plotters and fair-weather friends placed in the frame.

The Home Secretary Sajid Javid, whose odds of taking the top job were put at 6-1, backed Remain in the referendum but has since positioned himself as a firm Leaver. The son of a bus driver from Rochdale, he was a managing director at Deutsche Bank before becoming an MP in 2010. Jeremy Hunt, who succeeded Mr Johnson as Foreign Secretary, was given odds of 8-1. A prominent Remainer in the referendum, he chose not to run in the last leadership contest, insisting it was “not the right time” to put his name forward.

Mr Hunt tweeted his support for Mrs May yesterday morning, admitting “Brexit was never going to be easy”, but that she was the “best person to make sure we actually leave the EU on March 29”.

The PM’s nemesis, Jacob ReesMogg, who prior to the referendum was a little-known backbench MP, has not been a Cabinet Minister but nevertheless commanded odds of 12-1 with William Hill and 16-1 with Ladbrokes.

An arch-Brexiteer, he wants a “managed no deal”, and led figures from his own European Research Group of Tory MPs in calling for the leadership challenge.