Oliver Dowden: Tory fixer who may have eye on quick return to cabinet

Party co-chair's decision to quit over byelection losses leaves him handily placed if Boris Johnson is deposed

• Conservatives lose key byelections - live updates

Oliver Dowden is such a consummate Conservative insider and fixer that it might feel almost paradoxical he has become the first Boris Johnson-era minister to step above the parapet and resign as a consequence of the government's recent woes.

More on brand was the fact that Dowden, in his letter to Johnson stepping down as Tory party co-chair, insisted that poor local election results, capped by a disastrous double byelection loss on Thursday, made his position untenable.