Hammond’s 4am text to Johnson to call for coup hours after the election

THERESA MAY faced being ousted by her senior Cabinet ministers in the frenetic hours following the general election, a new book reveals.

Chancellor Philip Hammond reportedly texted Boris Johnson at 4am to call for a leadership coup in which David Davis “could run Brexit, [Mr Hammond] could run the economy and Mr Johnson could run the shop,” according to a source.

Events between the ministers unfolded in the early hours of June 9 after Mrs May lost the party’s parliamentary majority in the election, when the Conservatives had been 20 percentage points ahead in the polls.

The source claims Mr Hammond was ready to back the Foreign Secretary as Mrs May’s replacement.

“I know on that day he thought Boris could be the answer because he’d have the reach and appeal,” the source said.

In the days that followed, a rival camp, involving David Cameron, the former prime minister, was at the same time backing Amber Rudd to become the next party leader. However, the plot fell apart when Mrs May was not ready to relinquish her role and Mr Davis indicated he no longer supported the move.

The revelations are vealed in a new book, reFall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem,

The Sunday Times.

The book also implicates Mr Davis in a new plot to undermine her leadership in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster. It claims allies of Mr Davis were collecting signatures of MPs who wanted Mrs May removed after she faced criticism for failing to meet survivors on a visit to the site of the inferno.

‘He thought Boris could be the answer because he’d have the reach and appeal’