Penny Mordaunt is currently Leader of the House of Commons (Image: Getty)

       Tories are plotting to ditch Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in favour of Penny Mordaunt in the hopes of averting a general election wipeout, an insider has claimed. Prominent MPs on the right of the party are understood to have met with others who supported Ms Mordaunt when she sought the leadership after the resignation of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2022.

       Uncertainty is currently swirling around Westminster at the end of a week which saw Lee Anderson crossed the floor of the Commons after joining Reform UK, and Mr Sunak rule out any prospect of a May election.

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       The secret talks are also a likely indicated of increasing jumpiness by Conservative MPs with the party trailing Labour by roughly 20 percent in most opinion polls.

       To emphasise the turmoil still further, Armed Forces minister James Heappey became the 62nd Tory MP to confirm he would not be seeking re-election when Mr Sunak does eventually go to the country.

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       A Tory source told the Telegraph: “Some right-wing MPs met with Team Penny this week where they expressed the view they were prepared to back her.

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       Rishi Sunak has ruled out a May election (Image: Getty)

       They take the view that Penny is preferable to Rishi Sunak right now.”

       Portsmouth North MP Ms Mordaunt, currently Leader of the House of Commons, was seen as the best hope, they suggested.

       The insider explained: “Penny Mordaunt is now seen as the most likely person to stem the losses.”

       “At this moment in time the Cabinet are refusing to walk out on the PM.

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       Penny Mordaunt famously carried a large sword during King Charles III's coronation (Image: Getty)

       “But there is a growing view that if just a single member of the Cabinet were to go, the dam would break.”

       A spokesman for Ms Mordaunt said: “Penny is getting on with the job of serving the nation as Leader of the House of Commons and serving her constituents in Portsmouth North.”

       To date, just two Tory MPs, Dame Andrea Jenkyns and Sir Simon Clarke, have publicly called for Mr Sunak to go.

       Mr Sunak met members of the 1922 Committee executive of Conservative backbenchers this week - but sources have suggested the meeting was routine.

       A total of 53 MPs would need to submit letters of no confidence to committee chairman Sir Graham Brady in order to trigger a leadership contest.

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       Ms Mordaunt, who famously carried a large sword during the coronation of Charles III last year, recently criticised defence cuts, telling Chancellor Jeremy Hunt the “first duty” of the Government was to protect the nation.

       New polling of more than 100 cross-party members of parliament suggested that May (31 percent) and November (30 percent) were the most popular dates among parliamentarians for the next general election.

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       When asked by Savanta “when do you think the next UK general election should be held?”, one in three (31 percent) MPs chose May 2024.

       This includes one in five (22 percent) Conservative MPs who took part in the research, with one Conservative MP commenting that “things are unlikely to improve much over the next 10 months, but they could get slightly worse”.

       Another said that there “is no point in dragging it out”.

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