Theresa May zoomed down the corridor at breakneck speed, aides trailing in her wake, and bolted into Committee Room 14. She’d come to cast her vote in the ballot to find her successor, and was determined to evade the mobs of journalists leering outside. Thirty seconds later, she whooshed out of the room by a different door, and charged back up the corridor.

“Who did you vote for, Prime Minister?” called out a reporter.

“That’s none of your business!” shot back Mrs May, not breaking stride.

You can understand her reticence. Even she must know that whoever she’s backing would be instantly doomed if she let on.

Then again, if she does know that, it’s a surprise she didn’t smile mischievously and say, “Boris Johnson.”

Today’s ballot of MPs concluded the first round of the Tory leadership contest. Voting began at 10am. Out in the garishly carpeted corridor, we watched them all troop in. Jacob Rees-Mogg, slender and prim, and looking as ever like a furled-up umbrella. Then Andrea Jenkyns, accompanied by her two-year-old son, who was dressed in shirt and tie for the occasion. Master Jenkyns, it seemed, had made rather more of an effort than David Davis, who was swaggering rakishly around with collar agape, like a 1970s medallion man.