If you were to judge it by the response of the studio audience, Channel 4’s debate had only one winner. Rory Stewart got more rounds of applause than any other candidate – and, at the end, when each took turns to sum up, he was the only candidate to get a round of applause at all.

The audience, apparently, was made up of floating voters who’d declared themselves open to voting Tory. And, it seemed, they liked what they saw.

Why? I think, at least in part, it was the way Mr Stewart set himself apart from the other four (Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid and Dominic Raab). Mr Stewart is, as he said himself, the outsider, and he was happy to behave like one. In fact, he tirelessly played up to it.

At times, it felt as if he wasn’t so much a candidate, as a commentator, observing proceedings with a bemused grin, and speaking on the studio audience’s behalf.

He asked the other four almost as many questions as the moderator (Krishnan Guru-Murthy) did, and, more than once, noted with wry amusement (and to laughter from the audience) how “macho” they were all striving so desperately to be. And, while the others were talking, it was impossible to avoid noticing the expressions on Mr Stewart’s face: the perplexed smiles, the raised eyebrows.