Who is going to be left in the Cabinet once Dave has sacked all the people he needs to sack?

Who will go first? Dave is spoilt for choice (Photo: AP)

Who is going to be left in the cabinet once David Cameron has sacked all the people he needs to sack?

It’s hard to see how he’s going to scrape a government together. He’s got to get rid of Chris Huhne, obviously, before claims from his ex wife about his motoring skills get any more out of control.

And now he’s got to sack Ken Clarke as well. Dear oh dear. The Justice Secretary’s comments suggesting some rapes are more serious than others left Dave in a terrible fix at PMQs.

Mr Clarke, a veteran of the political jungle, should have known better. Nothing good ever comes of saying such things. Whether or not it’s true that there is such a thing as a lesser sort of rape when it’s between “consenting” teenagers, one of whom just happens to be underage, is neither here nor there. One is on a hiding to nothing by raising the issue.

It left Mr Cameron with no choice but to go on and on and on and on about how much he deplored rape in all its terrible forms until one felt like one was watching one of those harrowing real life films on the TrueMovie channel. It made for a traumatic and gruelling PMQs as Ed Miliband repeatedly demanded that Mr Clarke go before the end of the day, and Mr Cameron repeatedly stated that rape was the worst thing that could ever happen in the world, ever.

When he left the chamber one can only assume that a humiliated Mr Cameron growled at his aides to get him a list of every Tory MP who hasn’t currently got a job – which isn’t many – so that he can get to work immediately on a reshuffle.

To do so, the PM will have to take time out from looking at the instant focus grouping results showing that in the hours after Mr Clarke’s comments all the signs were that no woman was ever going to vote Conservative ever again. But I’m sure he will manage it.

We have been hearing for months now that the Prime Minister will not have a reshuffle, and we know how the PM hates being dictated to. Demands for sackings are not something he likes to cave in to. But it would seem inevitable that there is a big shake-up now.