Boris Johnson is very much the elephant in the room of this leadership race, looming large over both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. And much like an intimidating pachyderm, neither candidate seems completely confident how to handle him without being squashed.

Sunak’s approach is the simpler one: talk about the defenestrated premier as little as possible and for God’s sake don’t mention how the ex-Chancellor helped bring him down.