The collapse of Sunak In the next CON leader betting has left open a new battleground between five top Tories who are rated by the betting markets as having the best chance of being the one who takes over from Johnson.

Hunt, of course, made the final two in 2019 and did better than most people expected against Johnson.

Behind him on the markets are Truss, Tugeendhat, Wallace and Mordaunt.

I find this hard to call and many Tory voters remind me that Hunt was a remainer which could still be a negative with the Tory membership.

Mike Smithson