But it is hard to see how he can become leader again in this Parliament, in which so many of his own MPs refused to serve under him.
The Business Secretary stood outside a pub and proclaimed his support for vitality, prosperity and commerce.
The PM crashed about in a manner which recalled the short, brilliant, astonishingly abusive career of Lord Randolph Churchill.
Here is a Tory Democrat who with sublime impertinence has stolen the socialists’ clothes.
Raab trod gingerly in Heseltine’s footsteps, while the Leader of the House presented the Shakespearean drama of politics.