With Johnson in the ascendancy there is a crying need for a leader of the Opposition who can match him. That requires purpose, plan and stature. there is only one amongst the candidates for Labour leader who has them: Keir Starmer, but although he is currently ahead, he is going to have to fight for it.

And that is no bad thing. Recent history of both left and right shows that a leader bloodied in battle is likely to provide a tougher adversary that one has simply been anointed.

But being appointed is likely to prove the least of his worries: how to combine the bigoted xenophobia of the north with the spritzer socialists of the home counties will be a challenge and until that has been achieved the Tories will remain untroubled.