Chancellor Rishi Sunak has thrice failed to rule out a future bid for the Conservative leadership.

During an interview with Sky News’ Breakfast programme this morning, Sunak was reminded of the prime minister’s “if the ball came loose from the back of the scrum”, quip in regards to his party’s leadership, and was quizzed over whether he shared Boris Johnson’s approach regarding it.

Sunak did not answer whether or not he would be interested in the leadership.

“Well, actually, the PM is more a rugby fan,” he explained, going on: “I’m much more cricket and football fan. So I don’t know what the appropriate analogy is. But as we’ve talked about at the moment, there’s a lot going on. There’s a big job to do and I’m fully focused on doing that job and trying to do it as well as I can.”

“At this point, I’m just trying to stay at the crease and keep in place and not get out,” he responded when asked if he would catch “the ball” if it were to come in his direction.

”We’re stretching these analogies too far,” he jibed.