Early on in the Conservative leadership contest a friend of mine declared that he would be supporting Boris Johnson. Even allowing for personal ambition, the decision surprised me so I asked him why.

“Well, the way I think of it is this,” he said. “I don’t want a Corbyn government and the Conservatives are the only way of stopping that happening. And right now, after taking a hammering in the European elections and with a split and no deal looming, we are in big trouble.

“It’s like we are trapped in a room with the walls closing in. The Brexit Party on one side and the Liberal Democrats on the other. But high, high up in front of us there’s a tiny little window and