THERE is a strong possibility that we could learn as early as today which new Prime Minister will be foisted upon us.

The rules of the hastily arranged contest mean that only those hopefuls who can garner the support of at least 100 of their colleagues will make it on to the final ballot.

At present (and I accept that trying to predict what’s happening within the Conservative Party at the moment is a task only the most dedicated sociopath is qualified for) it looks as though Rishi Sunak will make it through.

Whether we will see coronation or contest will depend largely on the whims and wants of Boris Johnson and his deluded fandom.

The first candidate to declare was Penny Mordaunt. The frontrunner, Rishi Sunak, who already has more than 100 MPs publicly backing him, only deigned to inform the public of his intention to stand yesterday.

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At some point, the Conservative Party has to reach peak stupidity. There has to be a limit to the number of outrageous stunts it is allowed to pull and the depths to which it is content to sink.

To be clear: we’re talking about the next prime minister of the United Kingdom. This person is being chosen at a time of extraordinary economic and political instability, caused by the incompetence of the previous Tory prime minister who was chosen for us and chucked out before she’d even finished her probationary period.

Only the Tories could take an already unfair and undemocratic process and somehow conspire to make it even less so.

The two who have the best chance of winning the contest have conducted their campaigns behind closed doors. They are promising God knows what to God knows who and the public is told to simply wait and see what happens.

To her credit (and we are really scraping the barrel here) at least Penny Mordaunt had the guts to announce her campaign early and agree to be interviewed by journalists. I’m well aware how patently ridiculous that sentence is. We are at the point where the bare minimum from a wannabe prime minister is worthy of comment.

During an interview on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC, Mordaunt refused to say what her policies would be if she were chosen as leader. She wouldn’t be drawn on how she plans to deal with the cost of living crisis, falling living standards and rising energy bills.

She said nothing of use or note, yet somehow she still wins the title of being the most transparent leadership candidate.

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For that reason – and many, many more – this contest has no credibility and no moral authority.

What makes this ridiculous situation even worse is that the Tories are not even trying to give the impression they are acting with the public interest in mind.

This week, we will have a new prime minister and whoever that is will have faced no scrutiny from journalists or the public. They will either be chosen by a small number of Conservative Party members or an even smaller number of Tory MPs.

Amid all this chaos, we’re being told a General Election would be too disruptive. Which is a bit like watching a house burn down and refusing to phone the fire brigade because you’re worried about getting the laminate floors wet.

How much more are we expected to put up with from a government solely focused on its own self-interest? How many more examples do we need of unfitness to govern? Last week, we heard a lot about the so-called “grown-up” Tories who were waiting in the wings to save the day.

I wonder, are these the same grown-ups who stood back and watched as Boris Johnson trashed parliamentary standards? The ones who let him break things without consequence and only intervened when he turned his attentions to breaking their party?

Some of the Tory MPs who publicly expressed their lack of confidence in Johnson during the dying hours of his premiership now claim that what the country really needs right now is to Bring Back Boris.

Forget choosing our next prime minister, you couldn’t trust these people with a pair of toddler safety scissors.

The next few days are going to be dominated by the ongoing Tory psychodrama.

But in many ways it has never mattered so little who our next prime minister is. We already know that anybody chosen from and by that bunch of rotten, self-centred careerists won’t be fit to hold high office.

Forget the lies and spin about seeking stability. If they wanted stability they would call a general election.

They won’t, of course. Because they know that when the time comes for us to have our say on their record in government, our verdict will be as conclusive as it is brutal.