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Almost two thirds of Conservative Party members believe the PM should resign and trigger a leadership contest.

Theresa May was poised to begin appointing ministers to her new Cabinet today and shore up support for her position.

A snap survey conducted by the Conservative Home website revealed that 60% of party members believe Mrs May should quit while just 37% of the 1,500 members who took part said she should stay in post.

If she were to step down it would take the party about three months to go through the process of electing her replacement.

The leadership election is divided into two parts – first Conservative MPs vote, then ordinary party members have a say.

All Tory MPs can put themselves forward.

Their fellow MPs vote in rounds with the lowest-ranked candidate in each round being elected.

When there are just two remaining the choice is down to Tories who have been members of the party for at least three months.

The Tory membership has not been polled for 12 years as the second stage of the process was cancelled after Andrea Leadsom stood down.

The Tories finished the election with 318 seats, eight short of the 326 needed for a majority.

Mrs May is now pursuing a deal with the hard-line Democratic Unionist Party and its 10 MPs to ensure she can pass legislation through a hostile House of Commons.

But she is already facing calls from Tory MPs to quit both publicly and behind closed doors.

Anna Soubry, whose majority in Broxtowe, Notts, was cut from 4,287 to just 863, called on Mrs May to quit.

The ex-Business Minister said: “She is in a difficult place. She is a remarkable and very talented woman and she doesn’t shy from difficult decisions.

“But she now has to consider her position.”

(Image: Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror)

The PM “put her mark on this campaign” rather than the party, said Ms Soubry. She added: “It was a dreadful night."

Ms Allen suggested if it was "any other election" she would call for the Prime Minister to stand down, but a leader was needed during Brexit talks.

She added: "I don’t believe that Theresa May will stay as our Prime Minister indefinitely. Maybe in my view it may well be just a period of transition."

Asked how long she would give her, Ms Allen said: "It depends on those conversations with those European leaders, whether they're prepared to stall it for a month, whether they want to start immediately in 10 days.

"It depends very much on how those conversations will go, but certainly I don’t see any more than six months."

Yesterday the PM confirmed that her top team would stay in their jobs meaning Chancellor Philip Hammond, Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon and Brexit Secretary David Davis all stay in position for now.

(Image: Darren Quinton/Birmingham Mail)

But the PM is expected to announces changes to the rest of her team - not least because MPs like Ben Gummer, who was a Cabinet Office minister, lost their seat in a disastrous night for the Tories.

Alongside Mr Gummer, whose Ipswich seat fell to Labour, Jane Ellison, financial secretary to the Treasury and Gavin Barwell, housing minister, lost their London seats.

Other ministerial casualties included Simon Kirby, another Treasury minister, Nicola Blackwood, the public health minister, Rob Wilson, culture minister, Edward Timpson, the children’s minister, and James Wharton, a development minister.