Do I think Rishi Sunak was the best leader for the Tories? No, I don’t. Do I think he’s a good and decent man who has worked tirelessly for this country and who more importantly cares about it? Yes, I do!

I watched his resignation speech yesterday with tears streaming down my face because decency shone out of him like a beacon. His graciousness, his empathy, his sheer class as a human being made this man who might be small in stature look and sound like a giant among men. And for a minute I thought: “What the hell have we done?”

With absolute sincerity, he said sorry to the British people for letting them down. He told them he’d given the job his all but that they’d given him a clear signal that there needed to be change. “And yours is the only judgement that matters,” he said.

In the background, his devastated wife, Akshata, stood stony-faced listening to her husband prostrate himself at the feet of an angry nation, telling us how sorry he was to have let us down. I suspect she was trying hard not to cry. He was desperately trying to keep his emotions in check and so she, in order not to let him down, did the same.

But still, it was gut wrenching to watch this man apologising not just to the nation he said he’d let down, but to all his hardworking colleagues who had lost jobs and livelihoods.

And as he was speaking I wondered if there was a single politician in the Labour ranks who could deliver – and mean – a speech like that.

He then paid tribute to Keir Starmer, and was way kinder and more gracious to him than he needed to have been. “His successes will be all of our successes,” he said. “Whatever our disagreements in this campaign, he is a decent, public-spirited man, who I respect.”

As he talked, I was riven by sadness and, yes, pity. He’d been too young and too inexperienced to have been catapulted into the top job when he was. He only became an MP in 2015 and, seven short years later, he was running the show – the youngest PM in 200 years.

From day one I always believed Rishi was the wrong man for the job. And I said so. I said he was a manager, not a leader. And I wasn’t being disrespectful. He’s hugely talented with a razor-sharp intellect and an extraordinary work ethic. He’s a planner, a strategist, a doer… and all governments need that.

I thought he was the perfect chancellor but I never believed he had what it took to be PM. He lacked the dynamism, the charisma, the ruthlessness and, in times of crisis, you need all three. It’s why I always thought he and Boris were the perfect combo . Boris was the showman with the personality that could bring people to the party – even lifelong Labour voters. And Rishi was the brains, the financial nerd who would get things done.

And yesterday my heart went out to him because his good intentions, his dedication to the job, his wanting the very best for Britain, have never been in question.

But the PM’s job came ten years too early. He needed a few more political years under his belt before he was fully ready to make the Tory Party what it needed to be.

He’s always lacked the pizazz and charisma that defined great leaders. And at times he was too kind, too innocent, almost. He’s never been the sort of leader to personally attack the opposition and there were times I thought he should have gone for Starmer’s throat – God knows, he gave him enough opportunities – but he didn’t because he lacks the killer instinct.

And when the country was going through the cost-of-living crisis – not the Tories’ fault – Sunak got undeserved stick for no other reason than he was rich and had married a billionaire’s daughter.

But during the election campaign I saw a change in him. He outperformed Starmer in every debate. He looked tougher, more confident, more strident. He was becoming the PM we needed him to be. But in the end, it was too-little, too-late to save this busted flush of a party.

Politics is a notoriously dirty game but I never felt Rishi Sunak was ever down there in the dirt which made him a decent man but not the best leader.

I wish him well for the future and I hope there will come a time when he feels able to step back into the fray and serve this country he loves so much.

Decency, sincerity and intellect are rare commodities in politics and Rishi Sunak has all three in spades.