Who will be next PM: The Echo's guide to the candidates

Michael Gove: justice secretary, MP for Surrey Heath.

Brexiteer.

The 48-year-old former Times columnist seemed to be giving his fellow Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson a free run at the top job – until yesterday.

Although he’s famously courteous in person, it has been reported that Samantha Cameron has vowed never to speak to Mr Gove and his wife Sarah Vine after the bitterness of the referendum campaign.

Mr Gove, previously a controversial education secretary, was last in Bournemouth on the eve of the referendum poll, getting a good response from Wednesday afternoon visitors to Bournemouth Pier.

He told the Echo: “Our economy will be stronger if we leave the European Union because we’ll be free to forge trade deals with countries like Canada, China, India and Japan.”

He has previously stated six times that he did not want to be or did not have the skills to be Prime Minister.

Odds: 9/4

Theresa May: home secretary, MP for Maidenhead

Remain.

Theresa May, 59, earned her place in Conservative history at Bournemouth in 2002, when she took to the conference stage in kitten heel shoes and warned that “some people call us the nasty party”.

But she has been a tough home secretary, and she was said to have stunned the Police Federation Conference in Bournemouth two years ago, when she said some officers had displayed “contempt for the public” and the British model of policing was at risk.

She was on the Remain side in the referendum campaign but her relatively low profile may have boosted her leadership prospects.

Odds: 4/6.

Andrea Leadsom: junior energy minister, MP for South Northamptonshire

Brexiteer.

The 53-year-old former banker raised her profile through some polished performances in TV debates during the referendum campaign.

She visited JP Morgan in Bournemouth last year, when she was financial secretary to the Treasury, to launch the South Coast Financial Centre of Excellence.

She said then: “The reality is that the vast majority of people in financial services just do an honest day’s work and always have done and wouldn’t dream of taking part in any dishonesty. The problem is it’s been overshadowed by the appalling actions of a few.”

Odds: 12/1.

Stephen Crabb: MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire

The 43-year-old is the current secretary of state for work and pensions.

As the youngest candidate he would also be a move away from the Old Etonians Cameron and Johnson having been raised in a council house by a single mother.

He has already faced criticism about his views on the LGBT community.

In 2013 he voted against extending marriage equality to same-sex couples and he has also been linked to an organisation which has advocated that homosexuality and bisexuality can be “cured”.

Odds: 16/1

Dr Liam Fox: MP for North Somerset

Brexiteer

The 54-year-old has already lost out on the Tory Party’s top job back in 2005 when David Cameron was named leader.

Best known for being forced to resign as defence secretary after allowing his best man Adam Werrity to attended meetings with him at the Ministry of Defence despite not being employed by the MoD or having national security clearance.

Odds: 20/1