‘It’s a f ****** coup’: Cabinet war over plot to replace May with her No 2 leaves Gove favourite to be caretaker PM

AFTER a torturous 14 hours at the EU Council, the Prime Minister returned to the British residency in Brussels in the early hours of Friday morning and demanded a large whisky.

But back in Westminster, her closest Cabinet colleagues were preparing to hand Theresa May a revolver to go with it.

Senior Cabinet Ministers and allies are privately urging Mrs May to set a departure date to help get her beleaguered Brexit deal over the line as ‘a matter of arithmetic’.

But others have simply decided her time is up and have spent the last three days plotting how to oust her.

A senior Downing Street source told this newspaper: ‘Discussions about the Prime Minister’s future are ongoing.’

On Friday evening, David Lidington, the pro-EU Cabinet Office boss and de facto deputy PM, was said to be in the ‘advanced stages’ of a plot to force Mrs May from office and herald a long Brexit extension as an interim leader who could build a cross-party Brexit deal.

But as news of the plan leaked, it sparked a furious Cabinet backlash that saw Michael Gove emerge as a ‘consensus’ candidate who could bring the crucial backing of both Remainers and Brexiteers.

Cabinet sources have told The Mail on Sunday that Mr Lidington was initially ‘reluctant’ to step into the role of ‘caretaker’ but was told it would be a ‘four-month job with a three-pronged mandate: to negotiate a long extension, to oversee testing of what Parliament wants and to ensure a fair Tory leadership contest.’

A source said: ‘David is 60. It would be his last job in politics and what a way to go out. The key players are on board. It’s just a matter of when.’

The Mail on Sunday has learnt that Cabinet big beasts including Amber Rudd and Jeremy Hunt have urged Mr Lidington to ‘knock on the door and call time’ on Mrs May’s premiership.

In the febrile atmosphere in Westminster, there were even claims Michael Gove had initially supported Mr Lidington acting as caretaker, with one source claiming the plot was ‘far less factional than Brexit lines’.

However, as word of Mr Lidington’s manoeuvrings ripped through Westminster on Friday evening, Brexiteer Ministers were quick to brand the Cabinet politicking a ‘Remainer coup’, with former Vote Leave boss Mr Gove touted by Ministers and MPs for the job instead.

One senior Cabinet Minister told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The British public will never forgive us if, in a time of historical crisis, our answer is David Lidington.

‘This is where it is going to get very scary, whatever you think about it.

‘If we do not deliver Brexit, we are so unbelievably f ***** , not just as a party or a government, but in a national way. Now is the time to be bold. A customs union is a cop out – it’s the easiest solution for Parliament but the worst solution for the country.

‘It has to be her deal, or no deal. We cannot be allowed to drift into the worst position and that is what David Lidington is manoeuvring us to – there is no upside to it.’

And another Cabinet Minister branded the plot ‘a f ****** coup.’

Outside of the Cabinet, one Minister furiously rejected Mr Lidington stepping in, saying: ‘You might as well put the permanent secretaries in charge.’

They added: ‘This is a pipe dream for the bland brigade, who must be deluded if they think replacing uncertainty with more uncertainty is going to fix anything.’

The backlash also broke on to the airwaves and social media, as Tory MPs began openly discussing Mrs May standing down.

After it emerged Mr Lidington had discussed soft-Brexit plans with Labour MPs, Tory Brexiteer Michael Fabricant compared his pro-EU stance to that of Britain’s appeasing of Hitler in the 1930s.

The outspoken backbencher hit out: ‘With the PM acting like Chamberlain, we now have David Lidington freelancing and acting like Lord Halifax hoping to come to an accommodation with Labour. Enough is enough!’ Asked if the PM would still be in post by next month, fellow Tory Marcus Fysh told BBC2’s Newsnight: ‘I don’t know.’

‘We are starting to get to the stage where it really would have been good to have better negotiations going on,’ he added. And fellow Leaver James Duddridge, tweeted ‘#Resign’.

Tory peer Lord Gadhia said: ‘She may not survive to the end of the week.’ He added: ‘It is quite possible that she herself may decide “actually, look, I am an obstacle to a resolution of this process”. So we may have a very dramatic week.’

Leadership speculation is gripping all corners of the parliamentary Conservative party, with other Ministers privately accepting that a General Election under a new leader would be needed to achieve a fresh mandate from the public ahead of Round Two of EU negotiations over a trade deal.

And Brexiteer hardliners in the

European Research Group are determined not to repeat their disastrous implosion during the 2016 leadership battle which allowed Mrs May, who had campaigned to Remain, to come through the divided Brexiteers.

Senior MPs in the ERG plan to hold their own leadership contest to unite around one candidate. They point out a Brexiteer only needs to come second, with 105 MPs behind them, to proceed to the final round – a vote of the overwhelmingly Eurosceptic party membership.

Last night a source close to Mr Lidington said the claims from his Cabinet colleagues were ‘nonsense’, adding: ‘David has not discussed anything of the sort. His focus is on getting the PM’s deal agreed’.