Lawyers connected to a Conservative Party grassroots organisation are already planning a legal challenge to any attempt by Tory MPs to replace Rishi Sunak with a so-called “coronation” without allowing the membership to vote.
Express.co.uk has learnt that lawyers linked to the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO) are preparing a challenge if MPs try to ignore members for a second time in a row and a third time since 2016.
It comes as supporters of Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt have briefed out a plan to install her as leader and Prime Minister without a contest in a “coronation” to replace Rishi Sunak in a desperate bid to stave off a catastrophic general election defeat.
A CDO source said: “They [the MPs] got rid of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss who the members elected and then installed Rishi Sunak without consulting the members. It would be the height of arrogance to try it again and wrong. We believe there are legal grounds to stop it.”
Ms Mordaunt is not the only cabinet minister being proposed as a potential leader in a “coronation” scenario with a ring round of MPs looking for backing for Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.
But Express.co.uk has been told by senior Tory MPs that there will be resistance in the Parliamentary party as well against a coronation.
One former minister said: “The last two times we had coronations we ended up with Theresa May and Rishi Sunak. Both have been disasters.”
Another experienced veteran backbencher added: “If there is, now, to be a Leadership contest, perhaps with a much-truncated process, it’s vital that our Voluntary Party members, whose morale we must rebuild, have the final say. As a Tory MP, I’m a monarchist – but this is one ‘Coronation’ we could well do without.”
It is understood that Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch both have leadership campaigns ready to go and neither would stand aside for Ms Mordaunt or any other candidate without a contest.
One veteran backbencher told Express.co.uk: “Anybody who seriously believed that there could be a coronation does not understand the Conservative Party, how it works and the relations between the different factions.”
Claims that the right of the party were willing to get behind Ms Mordaunt have been laughed off.
One MP from the right noted: “We had a Common Sense Group and New Conservative meeting on Wednesday there was no discussion of Penny Mordaunt becoming leader or otherwise.
“Given that we met to discuss our support for Liz Truss’s Bill on trans issues and protecting female spaces it would be extremely unlikely those present would be tempted to support Mordaunt given that she takes the opposite view. It would be surprising as well whether Truss and her supporters would support Mordaunt either.”
Claims that Mark Francois, chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) of Tory Brexiteers, and Sir Jake Berry, former party chairman, were the prime movers on the right pushing Ms Mordaunt as a compromise option have been debunked as spin from Downing Street.
Other claims have pointed the finger at former Brexit Secretary David Davis and former cabinet minister Sir Simon Clarke, who called for Sunak to go in January.
There is now widespread speculation that the Prime Minister could be ousted in as little as two weeks.
One veteran MP said: “The mood has definitely changed among colleagues. There is much more of a mood to change leader.
“I think that is because of two things. First, the catastrophic handling of Lee Anderson and him going to Reform UK all of which could have been avoided.
“Second, a number of colleagues were hoping for some eye-catching initiatives in the Budget. They didn’t get them and now they have lost hope.”
