No confidence vote: Ed Miliband jokes Theresa May ‘will face a bright future in podcasting' if she loses vote

Ed Miliband jokes to Theresa May that she will "face a bright future in podcasting" if she loses the no confidence vote.

The former Labour leader, who set up his own podcast after resigning from his post following the 2015 General Election, made the quip on his Twitter page early on Wednesday.

He made the comments after the threshold of letters of no confidence reached 48, triggering a ballot of Tory MPs.

The results of the vote are expected today at 9pm.

Mr Miliband stepped down as leader of the Labour party following a General election loss in 2015. He now has his own podcast called Reasons to be Cheerful with radio presenter Geoff Lloyd.

At the time of the general election, David Cameron tweeted: “Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice – stability and strong Government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband.”

He has remained on the backbenches and co-launched a podcast Reasons to be Cheerful in 2017.

It isn't the first time the Labour MP has joked about the prime minister on Twitter.

Last year, he offered advice to Mrs May after she was pictured awkwardly eating chips in Cornwall.

Early this morning the leadership contest that the Prime Minister had battled for months to avoid finally engulfed her.

Ahead of a fiery clash with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs, Mrs May said outside No 10: “I will contest that vote with everything I have got.”

She then warned her divided party of “chaos” and a postponement of Brexit Day on March 29 next year if she was thrown out of No 10.

“A change of leadership in the Conservative Party now will put our country’s future at risk and create uncertainty when we can least afford it,” she said.

At 12.20pm, the BBC said its running tally of MPs who had made public statements showed 158 backing Mrs May — enough for her to win.

Some 33 had gone public against her, although others were privately admitting they would oppose her in the ballot.

Voting by all 315 Tory MPs who have the whip will begin at 6pm this evening and end at 8pm. The announcement of the result — and the PM’s fate — was due at around 9pm.