Nadhim Zahawi has been secretly working with close allies of Sir Lynton Crosby on a Tory leadership campaign for months, The Times has been told.
Despite becoming chancellor on Tuesday, Zahawi has been preparing behind the scenes a plan to become prime minister, which includes cutting corporation tax and VAT and looking at stamp duty.
He is understood to be ready to activate the campaign immediately, and the team had been preparing a resignation letter centred on trust had he not been made chancellor.
Behind the leadership manoeuvres are strategists close to Crosby, the Australian election guru who helped Boris Johnson become London mayor twice and ran David Cameron’s 2015 campaign.
Mark Fullbrook, a founding partner in Crosby’s CT Group who worked on Johnson’s leadership