It’s not inevitable, but let’s assume that the Tories fall at the next general election, in the significant defeat currently predicted by all polls. Would Sunak stay as leader of the parliamentary party in Opposition? Would the remaining Conservative MPs and party members around the country want him to stay? After all, he was never elected as party leader, let alone prime minister, but was shoe-horned into the top job after the resignations of his two predecessors. So, would Sunak battle on or stand down and give way to a new era, a new broom sweeping clean?

There is also another possibility: the return of one of those two recent former prime ministers, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. Both reckon they were hard done by in being obliged to quit, both maintain considerable support among factions within the parliamentary party and the wider membership, and neither has done anything to contradict the rumours that they fancy another crack at the top job.

Despite everything, Johnson acts as though he’s merely taking a sabbatical from being prime minister. His continuing international visits, million-pound lectures and occasional public statements are mostly more suited to a standing prime minister than one languishing on the backbenches (when he bothers to turn up).

Truss’s return to the political frontline came in an article for The Telegraph, in which she mostly blamed others for the disasters of her six-week reign and claimed she was never given a “realistic chance” to implement her economic policies, which she still believes are the way to go.