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There may be a feeling that ‘Moggmentum’ is sweeping the country but it seems that North East Somerset MP Jacob Rees-Mogg is not turning heads among Conservative Party members.

A survey carried out as part of the Party Members project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, has shown that Mr Rees-Mogg has plenty of ground to make up after being placed a distant third in the list.

More than 1,000 Tory members were asked who they thought should succeed Theresa May as the party leader and become Prime Minister, and they turned towards two of the party’s heavyweight politicians.

Brexit secretary David Davis was the most popular choice among members, with 21% saying they would back him to be the next leader.

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson is still popular as well, with 17% saying that they would support seeing Boris taking the top job. This left Mr Rees-Mogg in third with 6% but this still represented a healthy haul considering he is still a backbench MP.

Mr Rees-Mogg has become a social media sensation in recent weeks, revealing the birth of his son Sixtus on Instagram before tweeting in Latin on Twitter.

(Image: jacob_rees_mogg instagram)

This has led to growing online support for the North East Somerset MP to become the next leader but it seems that these hopes will be dashed two fold.

Not only is he not getting the backing of members, there seems to be a huge support for Theresa May to stay as leader and Prime Ministers. She received backing from 71% of the members to carry on, especially after there were fears that when Parliament returns after its summer break, that the Tories would be pitched into a leadership contest.

(Image: Getty Images)

All is not lost yet for Mr Rees-Mogg though as Tim Bale, who compiled the results with Monica Poletti of Queen Mary University of London and Paul Webb of Sussex University.

He told The Observer: “A quarter of grassroots Tories don’t know who they want yet and around a third picked someone who – unless something incredibly dramatic happens – probably has no chance.

“So, for both Johnson and Davis, and just possibly for a very dark horse, too, there really is all to play for.”