Theresa May is hated by many of her own MPs, a senior DUP figure has claimed as he insisted the Tories “cannot afford” a leadership election.

Sammy Wilson, the party’s Brexit spokesman and one of the 10 Northern Irish MPs propping up the Prime Minister’s minority government, said a lot of Mrs May’s Conservative colleagues “want to undermine her” and are “doing their best to trip her up”.

He suggested Mrs May was under pressure from rivals who want to oust her and Remain-backing MPs who want to reverse Brexit while also having to deal with the strain of negotiating the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.

The DUP MP for East Antrim praised Mrs May for being “very resilient” in the face of such pressure as he warned against an internal Tory battle to replace her.

Mr Wilson’s comments, made in an interview with Politico, came after the Telegraph revealed that work on a new deal for the DUP to support the minority Tory Government after June 2019 is due to get underway in the spring.