Allies of Brexit Secretary David Davis call on Theresa May to quit as she gears up for a year in No10

ALLIES of David Davis were last night accused of running a “black ops” campaign against Theresa May.

Close pals are calling for the PM to go now — knowing the Brexit Secretary is best-placed to succeed her at this stage.

Meanwhile, Mrs May is being urged to use her party conference speech in October to name the day she will stand down.

Senior Tories want the PM to put a deadline on her reign to stop plotting — and to plan a smooth switch of power.

The move comes amid mounting accusations that wannabe leaders are holding dinner parties and drinks receptions to prepare for a challenge.

One MP said: “There is so much manoeuvring going on that it is in danger of sapping all the energy we need for Brexit. If we knew the date when the PM is going to step down then we could all get on with our jobs.”

Some MPs are anxious for her to go now to stop the rot at the heart of the party – but others fear a leadership change now would trigger another election and could let Jeremy Corbyn into power.

A Tory said: “Theresa should use the October conference to name the date she will stand down to take the heat out of things.”

The former Tory whip, Andrew Mitchell, was quoted by an MP in the  “dead in the water” and saying she’d lost her authority.

David Davis – the favourite to replace Mrs May if she quits – has previously said it would be a “catastrophe” to have another leadership election at this point in time.

Mr Mitchell said the paper had quoted a snippet from an “overheated report of a private dinner conversation”.

The paper also reported that a “kamikaze” group of right-wing Tory MPs said they could be willing to risk handing power to Jeremy Corbyn to kill off moves to reverse Brexit.

Some MPs said that a “brief dose of a Corbyn government” would “end in disaster” and boost the Tories in the long term.

Another MP told the if she tried to hang on through two years of Brexit talks.

They suggested she “read the tea leaves and take action”.

But this morning David Lidington, the new justice secretary, said that the stories in the Sunday newspapers today were “a combination of too much sun and too much warm prosecco”.

He added: “Self indulgent gossip doesn’t really help anybody.”

No10 was also forced to deny last night that Mrs May was on the verge of resigning on health grounds.