THE DIE-HARD REMAINERS

GAVIN WILLIAMSON

Has enjoyed a rapid rise over recent years — thanks to his naked ambition, matinee idol good looks and a penchant for theatrical power play.

as May’s Chief Whip, he was rewarded for running her leadership campaign with the job of Defence secretary.

Best known for having kept a tarantula in a glass box on his Commons desk, seemingly to intimidate Tory MPs who stepped out of line.

Tried to soften his image by saying: ‘I don’t very much believe in the stick, but it’s amazing what can be achieved with a sharpened carrot.’

His time at the defence ministry has been fraught — being dubbed Private Pike, after the hapless youth in Dad’s army, by some service chiefs who see the 42-yearold as a lightweight.

Early this year he confessed to having had a long- ago office romance with a colleague around the time his first son was born, admitting he ‘nearly destroyed two marriages’.

a rank outsider — with critics saying only thinks he has leadership qualities. he

AMBER RUDD

BrokE ranks with Mrs May at the weekend when she conceded the possible need for a second referendum. But generally an ally of the country’s second woman PM, complaining that men at Westminster ‘seem to flounce out quite a lot’.

Brought back into the Cabinet recently after being forced to resign as Home secretary over the Windrush scandal in april. The 55-year-old’s achilles heel is the fact that she has a majority of only 346 in her Hastings and rye constituency.

an alumna of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, she was ‘aristocracy coordinator’ for the film Four Weddings and a Funeral and was previously married to the late restaurant critic a. a. Gill.

Her millionaire Pr guru brother roland was a leading figure in the remain campaign and is now noisily calling for a second referendum.

Now Welfare and Pensions secretary, rudd is considered an unlikely successor to Mrs May because of her steadfast support for the EU — something not appreciated by the Eurosceptic Tory grassroots.