What should Rishi Sunak do next?

The old English nursery rhyme The North Wind Doth Blow asks ‘what will poor robin do then, poor thing?’ about the impending onset of cold conditions.

As he faces up to the prospect of a heavy defeat in the Tory leadership contest, we are similarly entitled to wonder what will poor Rishi do then, poor thing?

And Rishi Sunak is clearly already thinking about that because he has begun framing the most benign possible interpretation of the causation of his impending defeat, telling the BBC’s Nick Robinson that he would rather lose honestly than win by stoking up unrealistic expectations.

When he was questioned at Thursday night’s Telegraph hustings in Cheltenham on whether he might duck out of the Commons and go back into business, he gave a reply about being honoured to represent the people of Richmond for so long as they would have him. That did not quite amount to the proverbial non-denial denial of an intent to quit, but neither did it seal off the possibility that he might change his mind at some unspecified point in the future.