Conservative leadership election: MP threatens to sue Government if next Prime Minister didn't support Brexit

Home Secretary and leadership favourite Theresa May supported the Remain campaign, although she did not play a prominent role

A Conservative MP has threatened to sue the Government if the next Prime Minister didn’t support Brexit.

Prominent and long-standing Eurosceptic Bill Cash has said Brexit supporters could seek a judicial review in the High Court if they were denied the option of voting for a pro-Brexit candidate in the next election.

He told The Times that to install the frontrunner for the Conservative leadership Theresa May without a vote would be “defrauding the verdict of the British people.”

He said: “Theresa May has never been a Eurosceptic, it’s as simple as that. After 30 years I can tell the difference between a Eurosceptic and a Europhile.”

May is the leading the race to replace David Cameron in 10 Downing Street, after the Prime Minister announced he was stepping down after failing to secure a Remain vote in the EU referendum.

Michael Gove, Stephen Crabb and Andrea Leadsom are also running in the leadership election.

May’s popularity has proved contentious among Brexit backers as she supported the Remain campaign. Mr Gove has claimed she does not have the “moral authority and mandate” to lead the UK into Brexit negotiations as she did not support it.

Justice Minister Michael Gove, Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb, Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom and disgraced former defence secretary Liam Fox are also running in the leadership election.

After long-held speculation that he was running for the role following his prominent support of the Leave campaign, Boris Johnson made the surprise announcement this week that he would not be standing. Former cabinet minister Michael Hesletine criticised his intentions saying: “I have never seen anything like it. He’s ripped the Tory party apart, he has created the greatest constitutional crisis in peacetime in my life.

“I have never seen anything like it and he must be answerable for the consequences. But the pain of it will be felt by all of us, and if it doesn’t get resolved shortly, by generations yet to come.”

A new leader will be selected by early September, in time for the party’s annual conference.