Other candidates for the top job gain ground – but not all do so. Meanwhile, the Cabinet’s collective approval rating rises somewhat as May’s departure approaches.
Also: MPs criticise Foreign Secretary over Ulster veterans; Johnson makes Thomson his Scottish campaign chief; and fierce competition to lead the NIO.
Its members must be signed up to leaving on October 31. Here’s a rough draft of what the top team might look like.
The Foreign Secretary has got tough with devocrats pursuing their own foreign policy, whilst his predecessor picks up several endorsements from Scottish and Welsh MPs.
Also: don’t cut members out of the contest. And the right exam question for candidates is: who can best win a general election?
Truss and Davidson take the other podium spots, challenging the assumptions held in some quarters about the Tory grassroots.
Now some of these MPs may have been ill, or absent, or abroad. But how many were slipped with the connivance of the system?
Almost two thirds of the parliamentary Conservative Party opposed it, alongside the DUP and a handful of others.
As a free vote, this may give us the clearest picture of the divisions at the very top of the Party over how to approach Brexit.
The Chief Whip has enjoyed something of a boost from last month’s victories on crucial votes, but the overall picture reflects a settled disenchantment.
Not for the faint-hearted. Contains intense violence, blood and gore, strong language and Philip Hammond.
We have occasionally seen precipitous falls in Cabinet members’ scores. Vertiginous rises are rarer. Indeed, it is hard to think of a jump quite like it.
For all the talk of May being pushed towards a Canada-type deal, there is currently no majority around the top table for any Chequers alternative.
The Foreign Secretary’s score is up by 20 points. Grayling now brings up the rear – and Bradley is in the red.
Also: Salmond faces mounting pressure over allegations; Welsh Labour scrap electoral college for leadership vote; DUP maintain tough border stance; and more.