It is only to be expected that many of the cabinet seriously think about standing for PM. By definition, almost anyone in the cabinet, at any time, is likely to be very ambitious. Johnson surrounded himself with people whose most important attribute was loyalty to him. Actual ability was very much a secondary consideration.

So if we rush this, we will almost certainly end up with a PM who lacks ability. And, which Johnson hanging on as PM, there is talk of rushing it to get the shortlist whittled down to two in around 10 days.

We are very likely to end up with another hopeless PM, I am afraid.

My preference, for what it is worth, would be Tom Tugenhat. I think it does need to be someone outside the cabinet. He has potential to be better than that.