Leadership frontrunners Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt both warned that their party’s future depended on its ability to deliver Brexit

The Peterborough by-election result shows that the Conservatives have no future unless Brexit is completed, Jeremy Hunt warned yesterday as the leadership candidates raced to turn the party’s humiliation to their advantage.

The foreign secretary said that the party’s third place was incredibly disappointing and meant that there was “no future for our party until we deliver Brexit”. He added: “Any elections before then will just allow Corbyn to sneak through the middle.”

After Fiona Onasanya, the former Labour MP for Peterborough, was found guilty in December of perverting the course of justice, leading to a recall petition and a by-election, the Tories were optimistic about regaining a seat that they had held from 2005 to 2017. Instead their share of the vote fell