BORIS Johnson may have a key ally from East Lancashire – but the rest of the county’s Conservative hierarchy is not quite as enthusiastic to see the former mayor of London as the next prime minister.

Rossendale and Darwen MP Jake Berry was filmed leaving Johnson’s Oxfordshire farmhouse, with party colleague Ben Wallace, at the weekend, as the Brexit figurehead looked to assemble his top team.

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Mr Berry is set to co-chair Mr Johnson’s leadership campaign, which is expected to be formally announced later this week.

And as Theresa May, George Osborne, Michael Gove and Liam Fox all take soundings about their Number 10 chances, there are calls in East Lancashire for greater unity, to heal the divisions between the Brexiteers and Remain supporters. Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson said: “The government needs to proceed in a way that those who voted leave and those who voted remain can get behind.

“We need to come together to implement the wishes of the British people but recognise that it was a finely balanced vote.”

He said that he will wait to see which candidates officially declare their intentions to become party leader before deciding who he will back.

His colleague, Mr Berry, who went down to Oxfordshire after holding one of his regular advice surgeries in Darwen, was unavailable for comment last night.

Former West Lancashire MP Ken Hind, now a Ribble Valley councillor and Remain backer, has highlighted that about 40,000 people in the county alone have signed the petition calling for a second EU referendum.

He said: “This is a time for leadership the country expects it and is entitled to it.

“We are in a time of constitutional crisis and the politicians are in danger of failing the British people at this crucial time, which should be one of uniting and healing the divisions in the country. Political party divisions should be set aside in the national interest.”

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans became the latest Brexit campaigner to admit that immigration would be “controlled” in future rather than reduced, during a TV interview over the weekend.

He said: “With the leadership campaign we are going to have, we will be able to put in place somebody who will be able to look at the immigration system.”

Mr Evans also sits on the influential 1922 committee, which confirmed yesterday that a new Conservative leader should be in place by September 2, before the party’s national conference in October.

The outgoing PM, David Cameron, announced he would be stepping down to allow a successor to negotiate Britain’s EU exit.