Conservative leadership underdogs Andrea Leadsom, Mark Harper and Rory Stewart officially launched their bids today. They put on launches of varying quality, but none are expected to make it onto the final ballot.

It was Home Secretary Sajid Javid who had the best day of all however. He released the second campaign video of his leadership bid and it was well-received. Javid has perhaps the most compelling backstory of the pack – and his team finally managed to find a way to translate it to the public. In a short John Lewis Christmas Advert style clip he talked about his youth as the son of a Pakistani immigrant father, growing up in Bristol above a shop, before making a career for himself in the City and international finance. It had the Conservative mantra of “opportunity for all” written all over it. It’s just a shame he only managed to capture it this late in the day.

But if several candidates collide and take each other out, or there are more shocks, Javid is a potential good bet as a compromise candidate.

More broadly, as the competition winds on, the candidates are getting better. Practice makes perfect, and while they are far from perfect there is certainly a marked improvement in the pace and quality of the contest, not to mention a notable difference in quality from the 2016 leadership debacle. Proper competition is healthy. Who knew?

Brexiteer Andrea Leadsom launched her bid this morning, and later in the day went with a bold announcement. When asked about the possibility of a second Scottish independence referendum she said it would be “subject to negotiation” before adding “never say never.” It certainly came out of left field and it won’t have endeared any Scottish Tories to her, nor any Tories for that matter.

And taking a leaf out of the Dominic Raab playbook she said that parliament can’t block a no-deal Brexit, and that the executive can override their will. “We are leaving at the end of October” she added. It may have slightly fallen short of Raab’s bold suggestion to prorogue parliament to force through no-deal, but it’s certainly a stronger line than most leadership hopefuls have taken.

Leadsom’s bid has not exactly taken off, but she secured the backing of 8 MPs required to officially mount a leadership bid. Her hardline approach on Brexit could be a big help to Dominic Raab, who has not maintained the momentum he began his campaign with. When the less popular hard Brexiteers inevitably drop out of the race all eyes will be on where the votes go – and by sitting with Raab on the hard end of the spectrum we can expect many of Leadsom’s votes to move over to the Raab camp. However, it’ll take a lot to make up the ground that Boris has taken, standing comfortably at the front with twice as many MPs backing him as current second place Jeremy Hunt.

Meanwhile Cameron’s former chief whip Mark Harper launched his bid today with the slogan “time for a party where everyone is invited.” The launch had an unfortunate Change UK vibe to it – it didn’t know what it wanted to be, and that’s being reflected in his numbers. When Harper drops out we can probably expect his votes to be distributed among the moderate Brexiteer candidates – that’s Gove, Javid, Hunt, Hancock and Stewart.

Last up today was Rory Stewart who took an appropriately unique approach, holding his launch in a circus tent on Southbank. It was open to members of the public and therefore packed with punters – but the general public unfortunately don’t get much of a say at this stage. As ever, the problem with Stewart remains that he has proved he can win friends all over the country, which might play well in a general election, but first he has to get past the Tory membership. And his line today about possibly backing Labour’s latest plan to rule out a no-deal Brexit won’t endear hit to those members.

The elusive Boris “Bunker” Johnson remains quiet but comfortably out in front. His team is keeping him away from the media, with rare forays out, for fear he lands himself in another classic Boris gaffe. It’s working so far. As each candidate vies for the spotlight they are bound to alienate at least some of their voter base with different policy pitches – meanwhile Boris can sit back and rely on the fact that MPs will continue backing him, simply because they believe he can win.

So where are we left? Sajid Javid has had a good day but is fighting for many of the same MPs as Jeremy Hunt, who is currently more popular. Dominic Raab can probably expect a boost in the second round, but his leadership pitch yesterday was ropey and he isn’t winning over the ERG in the numbers he needs. Mark Harper who? And Rory Stewart is winning friends in all the wrong places. It remains Boris’s contest to lose.