North Wiltshire MP James Gray claims that potential contenders to replace the Prime Minister are circling “vulture-like” in Westminster.

In his latest address to constituents he has named the “dark horse candidate” for Boris Johnson’s job.

Mr Gray writes that Tory bigwigs including Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss may be “buffing up their CVs” to bid for the No 10 job, but he tips Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt as an outsider for the role.

In a first-hand insight into the corridors of power, Mr Gray reflects on the current political confusion and says, “things are not as straightforward as some of my correspondents might imply.”

He adds: “The in-tray has been stuffed. Yet while the overwhelming message is one of outrage at the Downing Street parties, and calls for the PM to resign over them, a reasonable minority have taken a strenuous opposite view.

“They argue that Boris has achieved an enormous amount - the General Election, Brexit, Covid, Levelling up, a strong economy, and so much more. ‘Why’, they ask ’should he be brought low by what he openly admits was an error of judgement over breaking Covid regulations two years or so ago?’

“I remain of the view that we must await the Sue Gray report which may well be imminent.

“Nor are parliamentary shenanigans as black and white as both camps would like them to be.

“It was looking likely that we were approaching the 54 letters to Sir Graham Brady needed to trigger a no-confidence vote. But Christian Wakeford desperately trying to save his 400-vote majority in Bury South by crossing the floor, or even David Davis’s slightly mistimed and poorly delivered ‘For God’s sake, go’ intervention, may well have had the unintended consequence of making the Tory tribe pull together, and hesitate at the brink.

“Labour may counter-intuitively be pleased about that. They want to keep Boris as a perceived easy opponent.

“They would be much more worried about most of the potential replacement candidates who were beginning to circle vulture-like around the corridors.

“Rishi Sunak has kept pretty quiet - perhaps too quiet - in his failure to back the PM.

“Liz Truss should give up the photo opportunities; Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt may have one last push left in them; Penny Mordaunt the ‘dark horse candidate’.

“These and a host of lesser lights spent the week trying to look loyal and supportive while simultaneously buffing up their CVs,” Gray alleged.