Speculation is abound about who may become the next leader of the Conservative Party and by extension the next Prime Minister of the UK.
The website Oddschecker has done a round up of all gambling outlets which are currently taking bets for who will be the next Conservative party leader.
This begs the question: do any of Berkshire’s six Conservative MPs have a shot at becoming the PM?
Theresa May, the Conservative MP for Maidenhead and former PM, is the Berkshire MP who is most likely of the bunch to become party leader.
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Mrs May already served as PM from 2016-19, until she resigned after her withdrawal agreements to exit the European Union failed following several votes in Parliament.
Betting site Unibet has given Mrs May 50/1 odds of becoming the next leader of the Conservative party.
Meanwhile, Coral and Boyle Sports give her odds of 100/1, and bet365 rates her chances as 150/1.
But she’s unlikely to have ingratiated herself with social conservatives in her party.
Recently, she urged Boris Johnson to ban ‘conversion therapy’ for transgender individuals as part of the Conversion Therapy Bill.
While the Bill would ban conversion therapy intended to change someone’s sexual orientation in certain scenarios, it does not ban transgender conversion therapy due to the “complexity of issues and need for further careful thought”.
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In April, Mrs May voted for extending the supply of abortion pills at home.
During the pandemic in 2020, laws were changed to allow abortion pills to be delivered to the home address following a phone or e-consultation.
Previously, the pills had to be obtained from a hospital or clinic.
Alok Sharma, the Conservative MP for Reading West, also has a shot at the leadership according to Oddschecker.
The best odds he has been given is 66/1, by outlets Bet Victor and Parimatch.
At the other end of the scale, SBK is quite sceptical of him getting the top job, giving odds of 999/1.
Mr Sharma has held many senior positions in Government, including secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, secretary of state for international development, and President of COP 26, which meant hosting last year’s Glasgow climate conference.
He continues to work as President to encourage international partners to follow the agreements made at the conference.
Mr Sharma has made no statements about the resignation of PM Johnson on his Twitter profile.
Instead, he has expressed shock at the death of former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and is due to visit Australia in the coming days.
READ MORE: MP reacts as Boris Johnson announces resignation as Prime Minister
Out of the six Conservative MPs in Berkshire, only Mrs May and Mr Sharma feature on betting sites.
The others are Sir John Redwood for Wokingham, James Sunderland for Bracknell, Adam Afriyie for Windsor and Laura Farris for Newbury.
Those who struggle with gambling addiction should contact Be Gambling Aware, which provides a free online chat.
You can also call 0808 8020 133.
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