MP slams 'cowardly' attempts to remove PM
A senior ally of Theresa May has warned rebel Conservative MPs that there is no mood in the party for a leadership challenge.
Business Secretary Greg Clark praised the "guts and grace" the Prime Minister showed during her nightmare speech to the Tory Party conference in Manchester.
It comes as a Shropshire MP also claimed that those with ambitions on the leadership need to "put up or shut up" and get behind Theresa May.
It is understood the Prime Minister is not preparing to resign and that ministers called her to offer their backing following the luckless address in Manchester.
But Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard suggested a "small number" of colleagues were raising questions over her leadership in text messages and warned them "there is no vacancy at Number 10".
Speaking today, Mr Pritchard said: "If some MPs want to see a change of leader there is an agreed process through the 1922 committee.
"Trying to drum up a delegation of 30 MPs to try and circumvent this process is irregular, cowardly and will ultimately fail.
"Any minister with premature ambitions need to put up or shut up and allow the Prime Minister to get on with her day job."
Mr Clark said the party now needed to concentrate on being "effective and cool-headed" in government and that there would be no patience with any "distractions".
Discussions were reported to be taking place among backbench MPs as to whether Mrs May can carry on following a mishap-strewn address during which a prankster handed her a P45 and she was beset by a persistent cough.
However Mr Clark insisted there was "huge warmth" for the Prime Minister and the poise she demonstrated in carrying on with her address.
"A lot of the people who were there in the hall and watching it on TV will have admired, frankly, the guts and the grace the PM showed," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"One of the things that established itself very clearly was that the view of the party - of both parliamentary colleagues and activists - is that they regard, correctly, the responsibility of the Conservative Party to be effective and cool-headed in government.
"They have got not patience for distractions from that."
