Several national outlets, including Sky News, the BBC and the Press Association, on Thursday (7 July) reported Shapps was poised to join the Tory leadership race following the resignation of Boris Johnson.

Tom Tugendhat, chair of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, launched his leadership bid on Friday (8 July) via a column in The Telegraph, while attorney general Suella Braverman announced her plans to stand in an interview with ITV’s Robert Peston earlier this week.

Shapps hasn’t commented publicly since Johnson’s resignation, but he is understood to have been among a delegation of cabinet ministers to counsel Johnson on his future on Wednesday evening (6 July) telling him to "bow out with dignity".

The Department for Transport is one of only a few government departments not to have been rocked by the slew of more than 50 cabinet and ministerial resignations that contributed to Johnson’s downfall this week.

Shapps remains in post as secretary of state, as does transport minister Robert Courts, who confirmed on Thursday he was not resigning over Johnson’s leadership.

Courts said he focus remained on his ministerial responsibilities – "protecting passenger safety and working to ensure resilience as we approach a challenging summer".

"Transport cannot be put on hold while Westminster sorts itself out," said Courts. "The machinery of government must keep moving to provide the governance the public expects and our country deserves."

Two ministerial aides to the Department for Transport have, though, resigned from their roles over Boris Johnson’s leadership. Parliamentary private secretaries Nicola Richards MP and Laura Trott MP quit the department on Wednesday citing "poor judgement" and a loss of trust in politics respectively.