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By Josh Lowe
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Opponents of Boris Johnson in Britain's Conservative Party are scrambling to find a candidate who can defeat him in the leadership race that will follow David Cameron's resignation.
Johnson, the ex-London Mayor who spearheaded the victorious pro-Brexit campaign in Britain's EU referendum, is expected to officially launch a bid imminently.
But, The Sunday Times reported, Education secretary Nicky Morgan, Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, former cabinet minister Liam Fox and George Freeman the business minister all on Sunday signalled their intention to run. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is expected to declare a bid later in the week, bringing the total number of challengers to Johnson to six.
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Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary and fellow Brexit campaigner, has endorsed Johnson's bid and is trying to persuade the Chancellor George Osborne to do the same, the paper reported.
Under the Conservative party leadership rules, the field will be whittled down to two, and the party membership will then vote.
Johnson is the bookies' favorite to win, followed by May.
Despite Johnson's referendum victory, a substantial bloc of the Conservative parliamentary party think he is not a suitable leader.
Alan Duncan, the Rutland and Melton MP said on Saturday on BBC Radio 4 that the party should resist the "permanent ride on the big dipper" that a Johnson leadership would represent. Anna Soubry, the Business minister and former Remain campaigner, said Johnson had been backing Brexit to further his career.
"My anger with Boris is that I don't honestly believe that he believed what he was saying to people," she said.
And Morgan, writing in The Sunday Times, said the party should not retreat to its "ideological comfort zone" in a bid to "appease the noisy fringes"
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