THE next Prime Minister, the top job, is up for grabs.

And despite there being no official vacancy yet, until Friday, when Theresa May steps down as Conservative leader, 12 candidates (at the time of writing) have been auditioning for the role.

Among the names to declare have been Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt, Dominic Raab, county MP Sajid Javid, Andrea Leadsom and the early favourite former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

Tory MP Rory Stewart gained some early attention with his unusual campaign of wandering across London looking for people to talk to, which created a buzz on social media but some critics dubbed as a poor version of Where’s Wally.

We have all these candidates and yet where I see this ending up, like most things in politics today, is tied up heavily with Brexit.

Having had Theresa May, who voted remain, you get the sense there is a push towards a ‘proper Brexit’ MP.

Fed up with the deadlock, many who voted leave seem to have decided that the negotiated deal - the soft Brexit - is finished, so either the European Union make major concessions or we leave with no deal on October 31.

And those seen as remain candidates are making moves in the leave direction. From Mr Javid ruling out a second referendum completely to Jeremy Hunt saying he would accept no deal.

Will any of that work though for these ‘Remainers’?

I get the feeling this time it won’t.

Those who backed remain will look tainted in the eyes of many in the party membership, who the candidates need support from, so this looks to be a race between the committed leave candidates.

So for me it’s between Ms Leadsom, Mr Gove, Mr Raab and, of course, Mr Johnson.

From those four I can only see one winner capable of getting that support, and that is why Boris Johnson is the current bookies favourite.

He has even been backed by President Trump on this week’s state visit.

Assuming he gets it, be in no doubt it is very bad news. I have written in this column before that Mr Johnson is a man of little substance and a self publicist. The ultimate opportunist will have finally plotted his way to power.

READ MORE: FAIR POINT: Is 'Brand Boris' about to make a final push for the top job?