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Theresa May faces a Tory backlash after vowing to fight the next election and stay in power for up to 10 YEARS.

Last night top Cabinet minister Boris Johnson claimed the Prime Minister had "undivided backing" after she said defiantly: "I'm not a quitter".

But this surprised many of her own MPs, who have avoided a damaging leadership fight this summer after believing she would deliver Brexit - then consider her options afterwards.

When she lost her majority in the disastrous general election, Mrs May herself told Tory MPs she would only stay "as long as you want me."

Now she has changed her tune, saying: "There’s been an awful lot of speculation about my future which has no basis in it whatsoever. I’m in this for the long term."

Former Tory chairman Grant Shapps told the BBC: "This will certainly have raised some eyebrows."

(Image: PA)

MP Mr Shapps said he had spoken to 50 colleagues in Parliament and most agreed that although the PM had a "job to do" with Brexit: "We need to see that performance before we can possibly know how long she’ll stay in Downing Street."

He added: "The truth is we ran a very poor election.

"You can't go pretending it wasn't anything other than a disastrous result, of course it was.

"And you can't jump straight from that to 'I'll go on for ever', you've got to have an in between stage.

"And the in between stage is delivering on some of the stuff we need to deliver."

Even Katie Perrior, the Prime Minister's loyal former communications chief, said today she did not think she would fight the next election as Tory leader.

And Tory MP Nicky Morgan - who Mrs May sacked as Education Secretary - added: "I think it's going to be difficult for Theresa May to lead us into the next general election.”

(Image: Getty)

Some Brexit-backing MPs, including Nigel Evans and Peter Bone, backed the Prime Minister's defiant statement - which some argue was the only alternative to being labelled a lame duck.

But Jon Trickett, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, said: "The Prime Minister is deluding herself.

"Neither the public nor Tory MPs believe her fantasy of staying on till 2022.

"Theresa May leads a zombie government. The sooner the public has the chance to vote out her and her government the better for our country's future."