Boris Johnson, one of the leaders of the successful "leave" campaign in Britain's European Union membership referendum, has won the backing of a key colleague to replace David Cameron as prime minister, a newspaper reported.
Justice minister Michael Gove called Johnson by telephone Saturday to say he would back him for the leadership of the ruling Conservative Party, the Sunday Times said.
Cameron announced Friday that he would step down as prime minister by October after voters in the referendum took the historic decision to back the "leave" campaign, which was led by Johnson and Gove. Cameron had urged voters to stay in the bloc.
The Sunday Times said interior minister Theresa May was expected to enter the leadership contest in the coming days and was likely to get support from allies of Cameron who see her as the best candidate to take on Johnson, a former London mayor.
May supported the "remain" campaign but took a lower profile than Cameron and finance minister George Osborne, whose hopes of becoming the party's next leader took a big blow with the outcome of the referendum.
On the other side of the aisle, British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sacked his shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, on Sunday, The Observer newspaper said, after it revealed he was preparing to lead a coup against the party boss.
"It is understood that Benn had called fellow MPs over the weekend to suggest that he would ask Corbyn to stand down if there was significant support for a move against him," the newspaper said. "He had also asked shadow cabinet colleagues to join him in resigning if Corbyn ignored that request."
A spokesman for Benn declined to comment, the newspaper added.
Corbyn informed Benn that he was sacking him because he had lost the Labour leader's trust, the newspaper quoted a Corbyn spokesman as saying.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.