Officially, we will not have a new leader of the Tory party—and thus a new Prime Minister—until the 9th of September. But there are plans afoot to install a new PM far quicker than that, as I say in The Sun this morning.
This scheme would see huge pressure put on whoever is second at the end of the parliamentary rounds to pull out before the election moves to the members’ ballot. This would mean that the leading candidate, most likely to be Theresa May, would have won and could move to Number 10 immediately.
There is a view that it would be easier for a Remainer to drop out, than an Outer: if there was an Outer on the ballot, the membership would be more likely to want a say. One Tory MP who wants Theresa May to be PM tells me he is considering voting tactically to ensure that the Remainer Stephen Crabb is the other name on the ballot to ensure a speedy transition.
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