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  Courtesy of the Sunday Times.
  
  
  Theresa May has vowed to defy cabinet plotters, telling aides that she will not be bullied out of office by ministers or hardline Brexiteers opposed to her EU plans. The prime minister has decided to stand and fight if Tory MPs force a vote to oust her — declaring that she is content to “win by one vote”.
  That means the rebels would need 159 MPs to bring her down, more than three times the 48 who would be needed to trigger a vote of no confidence. May’s decision comes as she faces crunch Brexit talks with the cabinet at Chequers this week and MPs revealed that six senior ministers are plotting to succeed her. The prime minister will warn hardline Brexiteers that they will have to remove her if they want to stop the government pursuing a Norway-style Brexit deal that will keep Britain closely aligned to EU rules on the sale of goods.
  
  The Sunday Times can reveal that up to 20 MPs are preparing to run for leader if May falls and a handful are actively recruiting backers. They include:
  ■ Sajid Javid, the home secretary, who has invited middle-ranking ministers to discuss the future of the party. His allies have sounded out special advisers in other departments to join his team if he becomes prime minister
  ■ Michael Gove, the environment secretary, who has held “listening” sessions with MPs in which he has proposed the abolition of the HS2 rail project with the money to be ploughed into rail links in the north of England
  ■ Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, is inviting groups of eight to 10 MPs to sandwich lunches in parliament to discuss the NHS in an attempt to further his hopes
  ■ Defence ministers are planning to enlist the support of the royal family to force May to accept the case for more spending, days after Gavin Williamson was accused of threatening to “break” the prime minister in a bitter row over military funding.
  
  Downing Street staff fear the prime minister will face open revolt from hardline Eurosceptics after a cabinet meeting on Brexit at Chequers to be held on Friday and the publication of a white paper on Britain’s negotiating position the following Thursday.
  A senior Tory said: “Theresa thinks that if there is a vote of no confidence she has to win by only one vote.

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