Badenoch now faces the task of putting together a shadow cabinet to take on Sir Keir Starmer and the government.

Who could be the shadow chancellor?

Some talk of Andrew Griffiths, the energetic shadow science secretary who seems to relish the daily challenge of government scrutiny.

Others point the finger at former ministers Claire Coutinho or Laura Trott.

Then there is the crucial role of the chief whip: maintaining discipline within a parliamentary party renowned for its opposite.

Could Stuart Andrew, the man currently in this role, be retained?

Will Robert Jenrick accept the role offered to him?

Let’s see.

Also expect to see early discussions about the need to change leadership rules to increase the proportion of parliamentary parties needed to trigger a vote of confidence, to try to ensure the new leader is not too easily overturned.

For the last four months we’ve pretty much had a shadow cabinet, a team assembled by Rishi Sunak in the aftermath of defeat with the mission of being the caretakers until then.

But the mission now is to provide real, long-term opposition – starting with Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

“She’s ready to have a political fight with Starmer and my God, it’s time we had a fight with Starmer!” one of his supporters told me.

Many of their colleagues agree, but some caution that conservatives should not confuse the new government’s early difficulties with sudden enthusiasm for conservatives.

“And are they really ready to be led? » asks a figure from the conservative deputies.

“We were enthusiastically rejected. Kemi understands that it is existential,” says the same observer, hoping that the party shares this observation.

As I wrote just before the result, the last time the Conservatives were crushed in a general election and voted out of power, in 1997, it took the party 13 years and four leaders to find a future prime minister .

Winning the only election that really matters, a general election, will be extremely difficult from this starting point.

But precedents must be broken, and this has often been the case in recent years.

Kemi Badenoch’s task is to break another one.