New Tory leader’s first PMQs make clear there will be no situation that she is incapable of making worse

Many had been indulging in mindless wishful thinking (step forward, Rory Stewart). But come Wednesday morning most people in the UK were coming to terms with a very different reality. One where the majority of American voters – for whatever reason, economic or ideological – had chosen the candidate who was a known sexual abuser and convicted felon and whom former allies describe as a fascist. A known liar and narcissist who had actively tried to undermine the democratic process. A shallow, capricious man without filters who says and does what he likes. All of this was priced in – there were no surprises – but people love him for it. So the US has voted. The rest of us have to suck up the consequences.

But not everyone’s mind was on the fallout from the US election. A handful of Conservative grandees, including Theresa May and Norman Lamont, had sneaked into the Lords’ seating gallery in the Commons to observe their latest Saviour. The woman who was going to bring them back from the abyss. To put meaning into their otherwise empty lives. They were a part of history. To see a new Tory leader slay Keir Starmer at prime minister’s questions. The only person missing was Robert Jenrick. The Whiff of Impropriety had other places to be. Why support your leader on her big day out?