With the pressure on Mrs Mays leadership there has been renewed interest in who will succeed her and a change in the favourite on the Betfair exchange.

The previous long-term favourite, who was edged out by Javid, Rees-Mogg is now back there as the one the punters most fancy.

A lot of course depends on when a contest takes place and it has been interesting that Moggsy’s hard brexit faction has not been ready to “press the button” on a confidence motion in the Prime Minister.

The party rules mean they have, in their own words, “only one bullet” and the last thing they want to do is move a vote of no confidence and for Theresa May to be hanging on. They could then have to wait for a year before any movement was possible.

I agree with David Herdson’s assessment on the previous thread about this actually being a good week for Theresa May. She has coped with a huge number of difficult circumstances and apparently come out of it recently level-headed.

I still think that Moggsy’s problem is what it has been and that is securing enough backing from MPs to be in the top two on the members ballot.

He’s a very divisive figure and needs to put forward a coherent plan for Brexit not just his “vassal state” sound bite.

A problem for gamblers is that the longer Mrs May stays there in apparent impossible circumstances then the chances are that she can hold on.

Mike Smithson

Follow @MSmithsonPB



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