Sunak has seemed to be fighting a leadership campaign since the moment he was appointed Chancellor (Feb 2020?). It certainly felt like there was an element of PR company backing behind him from the early days of his Chancellorship.

Incidentally, one thing I will genuinely give the Tories credit for is that as many as eight of the candidates (assuming Patel runs) come from ethnic minorities - wonder what one of the main contributors to this thread makes of that?