Grant Shapps is but the latest in a long line of Tory plotters | Martin Kettle

Theresa May is a weak prime minister after June’s election, but she is in no way unique in facing malcontents who want her out

As a Conservative plotter, Grant Shapps stands on the shoulders of giants. There have been Tory plotters for as long as the Tory party has existed. It is more than 200 years since a member of the Tory cabinet during the Napoleonic wars, the war minister Viscount Castlereagh, fought a duel with another, the foreign secretary George Canning, because of the latter’s plotting (they both had to resign).

Related: Tory ministers privately agree Theresa May should go, says Grant Shapps

A Tory leadership contest can be triggered in two ways: if the leader resigns, as David Cameron did after the EU referendum; or if 15% of the party’s MPs demand one.

Related: Anti-Theresa May rebels advised by plotters who ousted Iain Duncan Smith

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