Senior members of the Tory party are plotting a coup against Mrs May, lining up Mr Hammond and her defacto deputy Mr Lidington to take one for the team and urge her to resign. The two ministers have been asked to stand in the ring of fire because other ministers are eyeing Tory leadership. A Cabinet source told The Sun on Sunday: “Her position is fading fast. It’s pitiful to watch. “Somehow she just doesn’t seem to get the message that it’s all over.

“So we’ve decided that somebody will have to tell her it’s in everyone’s best interests for her to step down.”

Up to 11 Cabinet Ministers are vying for Mrs May’s position the moment she leaves, with contenders including former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab.

Mrs May is facing increasing pressure to stand down as Prime Minister, with several Tory MPs pledging to support her deal as long as she is not charge of the next stage of Brexit negotiations.

A Government source claimed: “They weren’t the first people to give her advice to find it had fallen on deaf ears.”

Ministers are planning to replace the Prime Minister with a caretaker leader until a proper leadership contest is held later this year.

There are rising speculations Mr Lidington, a staunch Remainer, is lining up to take Mrs May’s position with Environment Secretary Michael Gove seen as the “consensus choice”.

In a tense Cabinet meeting last week, Mrs May told her colleagues: “I know most of you are after my job.”

However, Mr Hammond insisted that changing Prime Ministers “wouldn’t help”, adding: “This isn’t about individuals.”

Chancellor Philip Hammond told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “This is not about the Prime Minister… changing prime ministers wouldn’t help, changing the party of Government wouldn’t help.”

He denied reports he was hoping to take over Mrs May’s position or propel Mr Lidington into the “caretaker” role, adding: “To be talking about changing the players on the board, frankly, is self indulgent at this time.”

Mr Hammond said he understood MPs were “very frustrated”, but “one way or another Parliament is going to have an opportunity this week to decide what it’s in favour of”.

David Lidington, the de facto deputy prime minister, has said he has no desire to take over from Theresa May.

He told reporters in his Aylesbury constituency: “I don’t think that I’ve any wish to take over from the PM (who) I think is doing a fantastic job.

“I tell you this: one thing that working closely with the Prime Minister does is cure you completely of any lingering shred of ambition to want to do that task.

“I have absolute admiration for the way she is going about it.”

Meanwhile, hardline Tories and the DUP showed no signs of backing the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal in last week’s heated Cabinet debate, as she tries to win support from MPs before her final Commons showdown on Tuesday.

Last week, Mrs May was forced to ask the EU for an extension to Article 50, criticising her MPs for failing to accept her Brexit withdrawal agreement.

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