Esther McVey launched her bid for on No. 10 Downing Street just hours after Theresa May announced a date for her resignation.
Merseyside's only Tory MP before voters booted her out in 2015, Ms McVey had already made her ambitions clear even BEFORE fellow Tory Mrs May broke the news .
The Liverpool-born politician, who is reviled across much of her home city for her slashing of benefits and championing of policies like the Bedroom Tax and Universal Credit , previously said she would run if she "got enough support from colleagues".
And on the same day that Mrs May tearfully told reporters she was officially stepping down on June 7, Ms McVey popped up on LBC radio to field questions about the leadership race.
After asking "what are we going to do next?", Ms McVey admitted: "I'll put my hands up here - I'd better declare an interest straight away, I have put myself forwards as a future leader."
First caller Josh asked her "how prepared" she was to go to get a no-deal Brexit, to which Ms McVey said: "31st of October is set in stone. We have to come out then and if it means no deal that's what it's got to be.
"Nobody wants the Prime Minister's withdrawal deal, the EU is saying it's not prepared to compromise so we have got to get prepared for every eventuality, and that is no deal."
Josh said "I think we need someone like you" who was going to push for no deal and told her "I think you're the woman for the job."
"What a cracking first phonecall," Ms McVey said.
But when an NHS worker called in to say that people who voted Brexit were mislead about the Leave campaign's pledge to spend £350m on the NHS every week, Ms McVey "You're quite right it did upset people, that number on that bus, yes it did.
"I think it was probably more of an example."
Outlining her leadership ambitions earlier this month, the welfare-slasher and former Department of Work and Pensions chief described herself as "on the side" of working-class people .
But speaking after Mrs May's resignation, Liverpool's Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram warned that a no-deal Brexit could risk thousands of jobs in Merseyside .
The leader of the Tory party will become Prime Minister as long as the Tories are in power - although Labour has pledged to call a vote of no confidence in whoever gets the keys to No. 10 and force a general election.
Frontrunners for the Tory leadership - and the next PM - include Boris Johnson and Cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt. But only a few have declared so far, including Esther McVey and Rory Stewart, the International Development secretary.
