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Tories have privately vented their fury at Theresa May's bid to cling to power - with one dramatically saying she'll be "taken out and shot".

The shocking, violent-sounding rebuke is one of a string of devastating briefings from anonymous Conservatives to the Sunday Times.

Mrs May made a surprise vow last week to lead her party into the 2022 election saying "I'm not a quitter". Previously she told MPs she'd only stay "as long as you want me".

An ex-minister told the newspaper's political editor Tim Shipman she had "signed her own death warrant," adding: "The only people propping her up are the hardline Brexit eers. She'll f*** up again and then she'll be taken out and shot."

A YouGov poll for the newspaper has found just 30% of voters back Mrs May's new pledge.

(Image: AFP)

Some 48% said she should quit before 2022, with nearly a quarter of those saying she should go now.

In a third revelation, the Sunday Times also reports around 25 Tory MPs are now willing to support a call for Mrs May to go, slightly more than before she made her vow and around half the number needed to trigger a formal leadership challenge.

An MP told the newspaper: "She'll be fighting the next election in her chuffing dreams and in our nightmares".

A separate Survation poll for the Mail on Sunday put Labour five points ahead of the Tories on 43%.

(Image: PA)

The Survation poll also found 42% of people say it's "unthinkable" that Theresa May will fight the next election.

Even 39% of Tory voters agreed, according to the online poll of 1,046 people.

Brexit Secretary David Davis ducked the question of whether his "heart lifted" when Theresa May vowed to stay on.

Instead he replied: "She's a great Prime Minister, I think".

He added in his interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr: "In the last 12 months I have been never anything less than impressed in the way she runs the country.

"That's what matters. That's what matters to the people. Not the politics - running the country. She does a good job."

Trade Minister Greg Hands noted that "five years is a long time in politics" but the Prime Minister was doing a "fantastic job".

(Image: BBC)

He told BBC Radio 5 Live's Pienaar's Politics: "I'm expecting it to be a five-year parliament, and five years is a long time in politics. I think the Prime Minister is doing, at the moment, a fantastic job, it's a very, very big job at the moment - a lot going on domestically, the Brexit negotiations.

"She is doing a good job and has got my complete confidence."

Meanwhile Mrs May and her allies have launched a desperate bid to prevent a Tory rebellion over Brexit as MPs return to battle after a long hot summer.

The House of Commons meets for the first time in nearly seven weeks on Tuesday - and one of its first acts will be to vote on the so-called Repeal Bill .

The Bill will let Britain change thousands of EU laws into UK law on 29 March 2019, the day we leave the EU.

But Labour and some Tory MPs are furious at its inclusion of sweeping 'Henry VIII' powers to change the law without consulting MPs.

Mrs May, Brexit Secretary David Davis and right-hand man Damian Green sounded well-coordinated warnings to their own MPs not to vote against the Repeal Bill next week.

First Secretary Mr Green wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: "No Conservative wants a bad Brexit deal, or to do anything that increases the threat of a Corbyn Government.”