Rishi Sunak has warned Tory MPs they face an “existential threat” and must “unite or die”, according to backbenchers.
The new prime minister gave a speech to Tory MPs just half an hour after it was announced that he would be replacing Liz Truss.
Huge cheers, whistles and desk banging could be heard in the corridor outside the meeting of the powerful 1922 committee.
Former prime minister Theresa May was among the senior Tory MPs who attended the meeting in Westminster.
Sunak told his colleagues they must “unite or die” as he ruled out an early general election.
Penny Mordaunt, who pulled out just before the result was announced, told journalists in the corridor outside: “I’m good. I’m going to support the new PM.”
North Dorset MP Simon Hoare, who was in the meeting, said: “[Sunak] said we are facing an existential threat, but it is not an existential threat that is inevitable.
“[Sunak] said we have one shot to get it right, to restore faith and trust in British politics and there will no second chances.”
Hoare insisted that Sunak would “hit the ground running”, adding: “Certainly, he said that there will be no early general election.”
Former health secretary Matt Hancock came out of the meeting and told reporters Sunak’s speech was: “Absolutely top drawer!”
Another MP, elected in 2019, told HuffPost UK: “It was really good, I think in the time I’ve been here that is the best response I’ve heard.
“That’s the best, most positive response I’ve heard a Conservative prime minister get at that meeting of the 22.
“The only other time that would be comparable was straight after the 2019 election where Boris had just won...this was greater than that.
“So I think there is a great desire from the party to get behind him. I think he had support from across the parliamentary party from the left to the right and all over the country.”
Close ally of Liz Truss and deputy prime minister Therese Coffey said the Tory party must get behind Sunak.
“We need to get behind him and I will do whatever I can to help support him in making sure that he is in the best place possible in his role as prime minister but also in winning the next election,” she said.
Meanwhile, former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith denied the party was “ungovernable” and said there was “no choice” but to back the new leader.
“I think today will have brought that to an end,” he told reporters. “I think people are relieved, they want to get behind the prime minister and I think we have to do it, there is no other choice,” he said.
Sajid Javid said it was the “warmest reception” he had seen for any new leader and added: “I think everyone understands the need for unity, to work together, to put differences aside. We all stood on the 2019 manifesto, we all want to see it delivered.”
Other Sunak supporters heaped praise on the former chancellor, including Gary Streeter who said his address was the “best leader’s speech at the 1922 committee I have heard in 30 years at Westminster”.