HE once famously took his former nanny canvassing in a bid to win a safe Labour seat in Scotland.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, for many the very epitome of a high English Tory, time-locked somewhere in the 1950s, has let it be known that he is not, after all, interested in succeeding Theresa May as the next Conservative leader and, by dint, the country’s next Prime Minister.

Perhaps an indication of the so-called “silly season” that emerges as MPs head for the beaches, it was reported that the 48-year-old Old Etonian was "sounding out" friends about a possible run at the top job.

Given the calamity that befell the Tories in June, Westminster-watchers regard Mrs May as being on borrowed time. However, the potential existential threat to Conservative rule of another General Election any time soon has saved the PM for the time being; most Tory MPs yearn for a period of stability until the Brexit deed is done.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, (where else?), Mr Rees-Mogg sought to disabuse people of his Johnson-like ambitions.

"First of all, I unequivocally support Theresa May and do not covet her job,” declared the backbencher.

“Second, if I did, I would be a fool for only in Opposition do political parties choose leaders who have never held high ministerial office.

"Third, I neither am a candidate, nor wish to be one. I want to be the servant of the Conservative Party, not its master.”

He added: "Nor is this some clever plan to seek other office; if it were, it would have been scotched some weeks ago when it was suggested to the PM, who giggled in response rather more than my mother considered tactful."

The prospect of Mr Rees-Mogg, the MP for North East Somerset since 2010, as Tory leader led one of his colleagues to eye the exit door.

Heidi Allen, who represents South Cambridgeshire, told the BBC: “This is going to sound very dramatic because I don’t believe this will happen so I’m hoping this is completely hypothetical; I couldn’t be in the Conservative party if he was my leader.”

She insisted this was not a slight on her colleague, who, she insisted, was “incredible charming, very generous, has been very welcoming to me as a new MP”.

But Ms Allen noted: “He is not the modern face of the Tory Party that we are desperate – or I am certainly and colleagues are desperate – to prove is out there…He’s a moderniser if he’s the minister for the 18th century.”

She added: “He’s fabulous in his own right but he is not the future and I am desperate for us to find that future.”

Despite his high Tory image - he invariably wears a pin-striped suit and polka dot tie - Mr Rees-Mogg, a father-of-six, is well-liked and well-regarded across the Commons.

The SNP’s Mhairi Black once told MPs: “I disagree with him 99.9 per cent of the time and that wee percent is just because he’s got good manners. But I love listening to him; his knowledge is incredible and he’s so polite.”

Despite the inspiration of his former nanny, Veronica, Mr Rees-Mogg failed in his bid to win Central Fife in 1997; he came third with just nine per cent of the vote. Labour's Henry McLeish won the seat with a near-14,000 majority.

Rumours that the high Tory had toured the constituency in a Bentley were described as "scurrilous"; he insisted, in his cut-glass accent, it was “my mother’s Mercedes”.