Liz Truss is facing a Tory rebel plot to oust her as Prime Minister, a former MP has said.
ConservativeHome editor Paul Goodman has said some Tory backbenchers are considering pushing for Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt to replace the Prime Minister.
The former Tory MP told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: "All sorts of different people are talking about all sorts of different things because the Conservative backbenchers are casting around for a possible replacement for Kwasi Kwarteng, even for a possible replacement for Liz Truss.
"All sorts of names are being thrown about, Rishi Sunak, even Boris Johnson, Kit Malthouse, Sajid Javid.
"But one idea doing the rounds is that Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak, who, after all, between them got pretty much two-thirds of the votes of MPs, come to some kind of arrangement and essentially take over."
Asked if this would be decided without the party members, he added: "Yes, I suppose the arrangement would be to come to an agreement about one candidate so the members are a cut-out.
"I have to say I'm not very enthusiastic about this kind of idea myself, nor am I enthusiastic about the prospects of the Conservative Party junking what would be its fourth leader in seven years."
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly warned Tory MPs that any attempt to replace Liz Truss as Prime Minister would be a "disastrously bad idea".
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have got to recognise that we do need to bring certainty to the markets.
"I think changing the leadership would be a disastrously bad idea politically and also economically. We are absolutely going to stay focused on growing the economy."
