A male Tory MP said Theresa May should not be kept in No10 just because she is a woman as the Prime Minister - saying it would be 'feminism gone bonkers'.

Steve Double said it will do the Conservatives and the cause of women 'no favours' if the PM is kept in Downing Street out of fear of sparking a sexism row by ousting her.

He was hitting back at fellow Tory Nadine Dorries who warned the party will be pilloried if male MPs remove their female leader as happened to Margaret Thatcher.

The leaked WhastApp exchange between the two MPs comes amid fresh reports that Mrs May could face a leadership challenge.

Brexiteers are said to be plotting a coup to replace her with a 'dream team' of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg if she goes soft on Brexit.

Steve Double (pictured left) said it would be 'bonkers feminism' to keep Theresa May as PM just because she is a woman. But fellow Tory MP MP Nadine Dorries (pictured) warned the party would be in ‘the s***... if TM [Theresa May] is ousted by male MPs’

In an exchange, published in the Mail On Sunday, Mr Double, MP for St Austell and Newquay in Cornwall, warned against letting the PM's gender dictate party policy.

He wrote: ‘If the only reason we shouldn’t oust the PM is because she is a woman, but if it was a man it would be OK – that’s feminism gone bonkers.

‘There are lots of good reasons not to undermine the PM – the fact she is a woman is irrelevant.’

Ms Dorries, Mid Bedfordshire MP, hit back writing: ‘It isn’t when we have 21 per cent of female MPs to Labour’s 45. I am pointing out just a smidgin of the s*** that will be heaped upon is if TM is ousted by male MPs.

‘You could be taking down the party. Women are in no mood to let an act like this go unpunished.’

Theresa May (pictured playing with Border Collie Blitz after going to Church in Maidenhead this morning with her husband Philip in the background) is facing fresh reports that she could face a leadership challenge

But Mr Double stuck to his guns, replying: ‘If word gets out that the only reason she’s kept in is because she’s a woman it will do us no favours – or the cause of women.’

However Ms Dorries fired back: ‘We can’t ignore what happened to Margaret Thatcher.

'Removing our first female PM could be seen as inevitable. Removing two will be viewed as something else entirely.’

She added that male Tory MPs toppling their first female leader in 1990 may have been ‘inevitable’, but ‘removing two will be viewed as something else entirely’.

Women voters would take revenge, she claimed.

But St Austell and Newquay Tory MP Steve Double claimed it was ‘bonkers’ to argue ‘the only reason we shouldn’t oust the PM is because she’s a woman’.