Steerpike

The 'world king' is dead so who will be the next to wear the crown? Already the jockeying has begun to replace Boris Johnson as the next Tory party leader, with MPs beginning to endorse each other. Coffee House will be keeping a list of those who have declared and who their backs are but Mr S thought he would provide a quick run down of some of the most likely candidates and their strengths and weaknesses... Nadhim Zahawi The millionaire pollster has had quite the exciting week. Education Secretary on Wednesday, Chancellor of the Exchequer on Thursday and Brutus the Assassin on Friday. Zahawi's volte face on Boris stunned Westminster last night as news leaked out that the onetime Johnson ally had chosen to turn on the PM. Has that move damaged his prospects?

As the news rolled in that Michael Gove had been sacked by Boris Johnson, our own Douglas Murray was on Piers Morgan’s show on TalkTV alongside former spin doctor Alastair Campbell.

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.

Boris Johnson seems to be in enough bother without his opponents making unsubstantiated claims against him. But that’s exactly what Diane Abbott, the sexagenarian Stoke Newington MP, did yesterday when she appeared on yesterday’s episode of Broadcasting House, the BBC news review show. Abbott – who was ostensibly there to discuss allegations surrounding Chris Pincher – decided, er, to spout some of her own. The former shadow home secretary made claims instead about Boris Johnson when she was asked if a man sexually assaulting a woman would have been treated differently from Pincher allegedly groping two men. She replied that: 'It might be treated differently. But that's because Boris Johnson has been rumoured to be the one who likes assaulting women.

Oh dear. It seems that gabby Guto Harri has done it again. The revelations about Chris Pincher have put the No. 10 comms chief and his colleagues in No. 10 on the back foot –  not least because the Tamworth MP's promotion to deputy chief whip in February came just days after Harri's own appointment. Still, the Welsh wizard hasn't exactly responded well to reports about's Pincher's alleged drunken behaviour. First, Harri told a meeting on Friday morning that colleagues should support Pincher because he had lost his career: remarks which quickly leaked and triggered an avalanche of fury on Twitter. Later, in a wider meeting of ministerial aides – the infamous Friday night meeting of special advisors – Harri then sought to clarify these remarks.

Just what is up with Ben Wallace? The Defence Secretary is widely thought to have had a 'good war' in Ukraine, receiving much praise within parliament and outside it for the way he's handled Britain's response. Yet Mr S can't help but wonder about some of the Lancashire MP's recent rhetoric. Just this week he publicly claimed that Vladimir Putin is a 'lunatic' suffering from 'small man syndrome': hardly diplomatic, given Britain's stated position is explicitly not regime change in Russia. In April of course he also said it would be 'legitimate under international law' for Ukraine to hit logistics targets in Russia, even though this would, er, significantly escalate the conflict.

Oh dear. It looks like Pestminster 2.0 is rumbling on. On Thursday, Chris Pincher, the deputy chief whip quit after allegations were reported in the Sun. The newspaper reports that the MP, first elected for Tamworth in 2010, has written to Boris Johnson, claiming that: 'Last night I drank far too much. I’ve embarrassed myself and other people which is the last thing I want to do and for that I apologise to you and to those concerned.' The Sun adds that he was at the Carlton Club, home of Tory MPs for more than 100 years, and that he is now accused of having 'assaulted two fellow guests'. In his resignation later to the Prime Minister, Pincher said: I think the right thing to do in the circumstances is for me to resign as Deputy Chief Whip.