Boris Johnson has been sliced and diced. The real winner is Rishi Sunak

‘Once Boris Johnson no longer had a script to speak from, and was instead forced to think and speak on his feet, things went rapidly downhill. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

It had felt tempting beforehand just to look away, and by doing so mount your personal, not-in-my-name protest against the Boris Johnson show’s latest attempt to hijack the battered and drifting hulk that is British politics.

But this country is too far gone for any lingering squeamishness about Johnson to be permissible. The issues that surround him are too important, the dangers of ignoring him too great. What mattered on Wednesday was that a stake should be driven through the heart of the beast. And, to a quite unexpected degree, it was.