One of the Conservative contenders to be crowned party leader and Prime Minister next month has personally asked Nigel Farage to work with him to deliver Brexit.

The news came as a new poll in the Sunday Times put the Brexit Party in first place on 24 per cent, three points ahead of the Tories and Labour on 21 per cent.

Mr Stewart also said that he wanted to "use the Brexit Party's success to put an electric shock through Parliament and get it through".

Mr Stewart is the third favourite to be crowned Tory leader, on 16-1, behind Jeremy Hunt (12-1) and Boris Johnson (1-5).

Rory Stewart told Mr Farage on his LBC phone-in programme: "We need to find a way, as a party, of reaching out to you and bring you in to try to work out how we crack this, how do we get this (Brexit) through parliament."

He added: "You represent such an important part of this debate.

"The results in these [European Parliament] elections, the fact that you led us out in the first place puts you in a very very important position in this."