According to his wife, the journalist Sarah Vine, Michael Gove slept through the news that Britain had voted to leave the EU. He’d gone to bed at 10.30 the night before, and slept through till dawn, when he was woken by the ringing of his mobile. It was a colleague calling to tell him the result. Mr Gove’s response to this astonishing triumph, apparently, was: “Gosh. I suppose I’d better get up.”

Today, exactly a week later, the Justice Secretary launched his Tory leadership campaign by giving a speech near Parliament. It was lengthy and dense, but can be boiled down as follows. “Gosh. I suppose I’d better be prime minister.” He didn’t use those exact words, but he might as well have done.