Andrea Leadsom asked if she could submit a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister after the election announcement

Dame Andrea, the health secretary, reportedly asked the question at a closed meeting of Tory MPs on Wednesday evening. Photo: Andrew Crowley =true&id=bc72b371-0215-4d99-b27b-4223678de837&template=articleRendererHTML' class='tmg-particle Sticky-nav wrp-bc72b371-0215-4d99-b27b-4223678de837' title='General Election' data-business-type='editorial 'loading='eager' scroll='no'frameborder='0'allow='web-share' style='width: 100%; min-width: 100%; border: none; position: relative; display: block; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;'>

It is alleged that hours after Rishi Sunak called the election, the Conservative minister asked if she could serve him a letter of no confidence.

< p>Dame Andrea Leadsom, the health secretary, reportedly asked a question from behind a closed meeting of Tory MPs on Wednesday evening.

It comes amid speculation that Tory rebels are preparing a last-ditch bid to oust the prime minister and stop a snap election.

Sky News reported that Dame Andrea, a former business secretary under Boris Johnson, gave comments at the 1922 Committee.

The backbench committee of MPs met on Wednesday evening, immediately after Mr Sunak gave his Downing Street speech to launch the poll on July 4.

Dame Andrea declined to comment, saying «the meetings of the 1922 Committee are private.»

But it would be a devastating blow to the Prime Minister, whose decision to call an early election has angered some Tory MPs.

p>A steady drumbeat of MPs resigning

The number of Tory MPs resigning from this Parliament has reached 76, surpassing the previous record set in the run-up to Labour's victory in 1997.

It meant the start of the campaign was dominated by a steady drumbeat of Tory heavyweights announcing their exit.

At the same time, Tory rebels who tried to oust Mr Sunak at the start of the year are trying to rally support among MPs for a new effort.

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They see a last-ditch attempt to oust him as Conservative leader as the only way to stop the election and Labor bullying.

While the plot is likely to fail, it shows how the prime minister has angered his supporters with his surprise announcement of the snap contest.

Even his own cabinet was left in the dark about his intentions to address the public on July 4, despite that the Conservatives are 20 points behind in the polls.