Theresa May has vowed to provide the UK with the "calm leadership" it needs as she insisted she has the "full support" of her Cabinet in the face of a Tory plot to oust her.

Grant Shapps, a former party chairman, has called on the Prime Minister to step down and said the Conservatives must not “bury our heads in the sand” over Mrs May's leadership.

Mr Shapps has claimed a group of about 30 MPs are on a list calling for the PM to fall on her sword and make way for a new leader.

But the Prime Minister struck a defiant tone as she attended an event in her Maidenhead constituency and said: "What the country needs is calm leadership and that is what I am providing with the full support of my Cabinet."

Pressure has continued to mount on Mrs May after she suffered a catastrophic speech to the party’s annual conference in Manchester in which he struggled with a persistent cough, was handed a mock P45 and the set behind her fell apart.