Conservatives have a new nickname for Theresa May: The Caretaker Prime Minister.

MPs from the Cabinet down have decided she cannot lead the party into the next election after her “disastrous” showing this month.

But equally they know a leadership change this soon after the public has spoken would mean another vote – and the prospect of “Prime Minister Corbyn”.

So they have decided to support Mrs May in public, for now. But catch Tory MPs in the corridors of Westminster and there is one topic of conversation – not if she will go, but when.

“There is a distinction between the short and medium-term and the long-term,” explained one Cabinet minister. “The campaign has revealed she is not a good campaigner. I don’t think she is the right person to lead us into 2022.”