Who can retool the Conservative Party (UK) post-May?

[Lumine]

Given that Johnson still seems to retain some degree of popularity amongst the Tory membership it's possible he could win the leadership on the party members vote, but I'm 99% sure he simply would not survive the parliamentary party vote for the reasons outlined by others before and others. That, the fact that his election would be highly divisive for the party - as even his previous close allies felt compelled to knife him out of fear that he wasn't up to task of being PM - and the degree of polarization he seems to create would ensure he'd make May look popular by comparison.

Still, I can't help but to think that character/personality/threatrics will play a decisive role in allowing a given leader to climb back from the current mess (as in, someone who appears to display an actual personality instead of looking like a robot). From an objective point of view the Conservative Party ought be polling at less than 30% on account of sheer incompetence, division and chaos, and the fact that even now they're still tied with Labour as Corbyn is unable to close the deal indicates that, bewildering as it might look, they could still avoid full-blown disaster and electoral collapse.

On the other hand, there's no realistic solution to the Brexit mess at this point and they're stuck with May for at least another year, so I don't expect them to salvage the situation until it's too late.

[Lumine]

Whoever opinion polls show has the highest chance of winning an immediate election.

The Tories have only one important task ahead of them - making sure Jeremy Corbyn doesn't take power. There'll be other challenges, but none of them will matter if that's not accomplished first.

I think it's Hunt. Javid is the most qualified choice, but he would rile up the nativist populists and send UKIP voters over to Labour in droves.

Isn't Hunt massively unpopular after six years as Health Secretary and a not impressive stint as Foreign Secretary? I'd be truly surprised if he didn't have a sky high rate of disapproval.