THERESA May survived a no confidence vote in her leadership of the Conservative party following a back bench rebellion in December.

But just three months on, her position is vulnerable once again, with weekend reports saying potential rivals are preparing their bids to succeed her.

She cannot face another no confidence vote by the 1922 backbench committee for a year, however suggestions have been made some MPs will only back her Brexit deal if she promises to go by June. So who are the runners and riders who might succeed her?

Boris Johnson, 54, is a gaffe-prone prominent Brexiteer and former Foreign Secretary. The Old Etonian was one of the key players in the Leave campaign and resigned from the cabinet following the Chequers summit last July.

He was heavily tipped as a successor to David Cameron but ruled himself out of the 2016 leadership contest after Michael Gove made a last-minute bid for the job. Among his blunders Johnson told a fringe event at the 2017 Tory conference the Libyan city Sirte could be the new Dubai, adding, “all they have to do is clear the dead bodies away”.

Dominic Raab, 45, is a former Brexit Secretary and a prominent Brexiteer in the referendum campaign. He was appointed as Brexit Secretary in July but resigned in November, saying he could not support May’s deal. In his resignation letter on November 15, he wrote: “Ultimately, you deserve a Brexit Secretary who can make the case for the deal you are pursuing with conviction. I am only sorry, in good conscience, that I cannot.”

He has been the MP for Esher and Walton since he was elected in 2010. The son of a Czech-born Jewish father who came to Britain in 1938, he is married with two children.

Sajid Javid, 49, backed Remain in the referendum but has since positioned himself as a firm Leaver. He became the first Home Secretary from an ethnic minority background when he was appointed in April 2018. The son of a Pakistani bus driver from Rochdale, he was a managing director at Deutsche Bank before becoming an MP in 2010. He is married with four children. He is currently caught in controversy over his decision strip Daesh bride Shamima Begum of her UK citizenship and accused of moral cowardice following the death of her three week old baby in a refugee camp in Syria.

Jeremy Hunt, 52, was a prominent Remainer in the 2016 referendum as Health Secretary, he fought a long battle with doctors over a new contract. He was appointed Foreign Secretary in July last year following the resignation of Boris Johnson. During a diplomatic trip to Slovenia last month he dropped a clanger by wrongly describing the country as a former Soviet vassal state when in fact it was the wealthiest state within the former Yugoslavia, which was outside the iron curtain and formed part of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Yugoslavia’s leader Josip Tito defied Moscow’s hegemony and promoted what he called independent roads to socialism.

Michael Gove, 51, was forced to deny he “stabbed Johnson in the back” in the 2016 Tory leadership race after he withdrew support for him on the morning Johnson was due to declare - throwing his own hat in the ring instead.