LABOUR, the LibDems and Ukip began eyeing up new leaders yesterday, as runners and riders emerged to replace Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage.
The bookies quickly installed shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna as the early favourite to be Labour leader following Miliband's disastrous election night.
A slick media performer who increased his majority in Streatham by 10 per cent, Umunna was reported to have sounded out MPs about a possible bid.
William Hill slashed the odds on him becoming leader from 6/1 to 7/4 favourite, while Ladbrokes cut theirs from 6/1 to 13/8, after a surge in bets on the 36-year-old, who was only elected in 2010.
Other contenders include shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, former paratrooper Dan Jarvis, and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper.
David Miliband, who lost the leadership to his brother in 2010, was quoted at 12/1, while Harriet Harman, who is now interim leader, was a 25/1 outsider.
Tottenham MP and London mayoral candidate David Lammy said he was considering a run at the job, saying it was "absolutely time" for a new generation to "step up".
He said: "Now that we have a proper race to lead the party, of course, me and others are looking very carefully at who is the best leader and if colleagues come to me over the coming days and say "Look, David, why don't you put your [hat in] I will look at it."
Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson, often described as the leader Labour should have had instead of Miliband, again ruled himself out for the job.
He said it could take a decade for Labour to recover from its defeat adding that the party needed a "proper rethink" about its direction.
He said: "This is a ten-year task. This is a job for the future...It is much more fundamental than just changing the leadership."
With the LibDems's Westminster group down from 57 to just eight, any MP who wasn't Nick Clegg was being touted as a possible successor.
The favourite is former party president Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale.
But others dropped hints they too were interested.
Former health minister Norman Lamb, MP for Norfolk North, who told his local radio station: "I will think carefully about how I can best serve my party."
Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland also said on Friday that the party needed a leader who had voted against the "catastrophic" U-turn on tuition fees - Mulholland is one of just three surviving LibDem MPs who voted against the policy.
Scotland's sole LibDem MP, Alistair Carmichael, appeared to rule himself out earlier this year, observing his Orkney & Shetland seat was the furthest one from London.
"I have got a family that still includes school age children. And the commitment that it takes to be party leader in modern politics is enormous," he said.
The other LibDem MPs are Tom Brake in Carshalton and Wallington, John Pugh in Southport and Mark Williams in Ceredigion.
Before the election, a LibDem minister was expected to replace Clegg, with Danny Alexander, David Laws, and Vince Cable tipped for the job, but all lost their seats.
Ukip's only MP, Douglas Carswell, ruled himself out the race to replace Farage, who quit on Thursday after failing to win Thanet South saying he had "never felt happier".
Possible replacements include deputy leader Paul Nuttall MEP, economy spokesman Patrick O'Flynn MEP and Ukip deputy chair Suzanne Evans.
However Farage has said he may also run for the leadership again in September.
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