Liz Truss has insisted there is “no discussion” about her running to replace Boris Johnson, despite being seen as a frontrunner to succeed the Prime Minister should he be toppled over the partygate scandal.

The Foreign Secretary on Sunday said Boris Johnson was “absolutely” the best person to lead the Conservatives into the next election.

Ms Truss is seen as the closest competitor to Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, should the publication of Sue Gray’s report spark a fresh revolt on the Tory benches.

Others in the spotlight include Jeremy Hunt, the former foreign secretary and runner-up to Mr Johnson in 2019, who recently admitted that his ambition to become leader had “not completely vanished”.

He is said to be privately jostling for the backing of moderate One Nation Tories with Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee, who became the first MP to openly declare his ambitions over the weekend.

Senior ministers also tipped to run if there were a contest, include Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary; Priti Patel, the Home Secretary; Nahim Zahawi, the Education Secretary; and Penny Mordaunt, a trade minister.

‘There is no discussion’

Asked if she was tempted by the top job during a series of broadcast interviews on Sunday, Ms Truss said: “There is no contest. There is no discussion.”

Pressed again on Times Radio if she had spoken with anyone about running for the Tory leadership, she replied: “No, is the answer … No, I haven’t. And I’m 100 per cent focused on my role as Foreign Secretary.”

In contrast, when asked the same question, Mr Tugendhat told Times Radio: “I think I’m making it pretty clear that I think that it’s up to all of us to put ourselves forward. And it’s up to the electorate, in the first case parliamentary colleagues, and in the second case the party, to choose.

“I think it’s a position of absolute integrity to say that of course you should offer yourself to the electorate if you think you can do it. Of course you should talk to colleagues and see if you can get a group together, and if you can get a group together, you should go for it.”

Questioned on whether she welcomed Mr Tugendhat’s candidacy, Ms Truss said: “I hugely respect Tom and of course he chairs the committee that scrutinises the Foreign Office.

“What I would say is there isn’t a vacancy and there isn’t going to be a vacancy. The Prime Minister is doing an excellent job and I 100 per cent support him.

“In terms of our booster rollout, it’s been world-leading, we’re seeing our economy open up much faster than our competitors overseas.

“We’re seeing economic growth doing well, we’ve got higher employment now than we had prior to the pandemic and we need to move forward on that basis.”

‘He’s not the king’

It comes as senior Government sources on Sunday said they were cautiously optimistic that Mr Johnson may have survived the worst of the backlash brought about by revelations of lockdown-breaking parties across Whitehall.

On Sunday, in an interview with New York Magazine, Dominic Cummings said Mr Johnson once told him he was “the king around here” and that bringing down his premiership was like “fixing the drains” – “an unpleasant but necessary job”.

The Prime Minister’s former chief adviser said: “You know, as he said to me, ‘I’m the f—— king around here and I’m going to do what I want.’ That’s not okay. He’s not the king. He can’t do what he wants. Once you realise someone is operating like that then your duty is to get rid of them, not to just prop them up.”

Mr Cummings said that Mr Johnson should no longer be in office because he was a “duffer” and “unfit for the job”.