It should have been the roughest week of Boris Johnson’s premiership but the Prime Minister will be counting his blessings as he boarded his flight to India for a whirlwind 48-hour trade and diplomatic blitz.
Opposition parties will say he is running fast to escape the quagmire of the partygate scandal.
An embarrassing Commons debate later today will chew over whether he misled parliament, basically lied, by claiming Downing Street adhered to all the rules during lockdown.
Some 50 fixed penalty fines from the Met Police, including two for the Prime Minister and Chancellor, the ‘tag team of scandal’ as Ian Blackford described them, say otherwise.
The debate will give partygate its third Commons airing of the week but the vote will go against Labour.
Through gritted, tribal teeth Tory MPs will find an amendment to which they can attach their names even if their noses are filled with a Thames stench.
Bolstered by an apparent acceptance of his excuses by Tory MPs the previous evening, the PM found his stride again at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
Rockets from Starmer and Blackford bounced off the thick hide, and there were none from Tory MPs who are the only people who count right now.
Their attitude might change after being dragged through the division lobbies and then “named and shamed” on posters going up in their constituencies ahead of local council elections.
One MP won’t need the poster to be disgraced. Douglas Ross just needs to turn up at First Minister’s Questions in Holyrood for a ritual humiliation.
The Prime Minister cannot escape the mire not matter how far he flies, public trust is completely shot. But he could take Ross down with him, as Keir Starmer predicted.
That despatch box reference to the Scottish Tory leader by the on-form Starmer was quite telling.
He didn’t need to say it but it lends a hand to Scottish Labour.
That is a sure sign of an opposition getting its act together. That, and the polls, should leave these Tory MPs very worried.
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