As a wounded Boris Johnson roared defiance from his bunker at 10 Downing Street, the mood in his party turned to anger and despair. “It may take a Panzer tank to get him out,” commented a former Cabinet minister from a military background with gallows humour. Another former Cabinet heavyweight said: “He’s not going to give it up. He is going to force them to go all the way. If they want it, they are going to have to take it from him.”
After more than 50 resignations of ministers, advisers and aides, including prominent Cabinet members, no senior Tory MPs thought he could fully recover. But getting him out was not straightforward.
