You know it’s bad when the Old Etonians are turning on you. After the Cabinet departures of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid and, er, whatever the hell Andrew Murrison was trying to do with his blurry letter of resignation, Bim Afolami has become the fourth Tory MP to quit the official payroll tonight. Afolami opted to do it on TalkTV, the newly-launched broadcasting channel which has struggled to retain its viewers. As one wag quipped to Mr S: ‘He actually resigned three hours ago but no one noticed.’

Pressed by host Tom Newton Dunn, Afolami said that while he had not sent a formal note of his intent to the Prime Minister, he felt he could no longer serve under Johnson as ‘you have to resign’. He added ‘it has become clear’ that ‘the time has come for him to stand down.’ The ambitious Hitchin and Harpenden MP was previously accused of being on manoeuvres as a key aide to Liz Truss and only recently took up his current post as a Tory party vice chair.

Good news for any backbenchers hoping to take his place, perhaps?