Angie’s just said the quiet part out loud. Appearing as a guest host on LBC this morning – strange, Guido’s sure he can remember Rayner promising to ban MPs’ second jobs – Labour’s deputy leader admitted what everyone already knew: the man who posed the biggest electoral threat to Labour has left the building. Asked by a caller who she fears the most of the five remaining Tory leadership candidates, Rayner said she’d be “happy with any one of them”… because at least they aren’t Boris:

“I’m quite happy with any one of them. Because the one thing, and I kind of could see it… [Boris] had this, like, teflon coating… It’s like a little magic. Where he was able to get through to the public and get through to the places that I actually don’t see any of the five candidates that are standing having at the moment… Boris had so much going for him. He got an 80-seat majority and the country was really behind him… the five that we’ve got now I don’t think have got that…”

On Friday, The Times claimed Starmer now believes “for the first time” he might actually become Prime Minister. Left-wing hacks also share the view, with the likes of Pippa Crerar delighting in the PM’s defenestration – though to be fair to Pippa, leading the way on Partygate does at least permit a level of smugness. Even this morning, Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell admitted in the House Magazine that life had become easier for Labour now that Boris is on the way out:

“Boris in his heyday was a very formidable campaigner who was able to reach parts of the country that other Conservatives haven’t and wouldn’t be able to reach… What’s likely to come next is probably going to give Labour a bigger opportunity to reach back into the so-called ‘Red Wall’…”

Two years to go before an election. Tory MPs should be careful what they wish for…