Boris Johnson has never had much truck with the concept of loyalty.
The Prime Minister’s repeated infidelity has been the one constant in an otherwise tumultuous personal and political life.
This matters.
Just at the moment he needs the loyalty of his MPs to survive, Johnson is in no position to command it.
Prime Minister’s Questions was bookended by the defection of Christian Wakeford to Labour and David Davis telling Johnson, “in the name of God, go”.
The same words were used by the Conservative MP Leo Amery in 1940 when he demanded Neville Chamberlain’s departure.
To compare Johnson, whose idol is Winston Churchill, to Chamberlain was deliberately wounding.
But it was not just the words which would have stung, but who said them.
The Prime Minister had been trying to shore up support by telling Red Wall MPs that they owed their jobs to him and by reminding the Brexiteers that he was the person who delivered their dream.
The pleading fell on deaf ears.
Wakeford has concluded he stands a better chance of remaining the MP for Bury South by joining Keir Starmer’s Labour, while Davis has decided that Johnson has so damaged the Tories that there is no room for sentimentality about Brexit.
The immediate effect of Wakeford’s crossing the floor was to jolt the Tories into a temporary show of unity.
The tribal nature of Westminster dictates that nothing will bring a party closer together than a shared loathing for a turncoat. Any relief for Johnson is likely to be short-lived. When the anger over Wakeford subsides, Tory MPs will realise they are still saddled with a leader whose conduct has contaminated the reputation of the whole party, perhaps irretrievably so.
The threat of a vote of no-confidence hangs over Johnson.
It is a tortuous reminder that his authority is so depleted that he is no longer in command of his own future.
Some Tory MPs want him gone now, others are prepared to wait until after Sue Gray delivers her report on partygate.
Even if he survives that, Johnson’s fate could be sealed if the Conservatives are routed in May’s local elections.
If there is no unity on when he could be ousted, there is a growing consensus that his departure is inevitable. Davis and Wakeford showed that the disillusionment with Johnson is shared by two very different wings of the party.
It is not just Tory MPs in the Red Wall seats who now fear for their futures.
In the wake of the Chesham and Amersham, and North Shropshire by-election defeats, shire Tories and those in the suburbs of the big cities fear they could be vulnerable to the Lib Dems.
The politician who was once praised for his Heineken-like ability to appeal to voters other Tories could not reach now has all the attraction of slops of stale beer.
The only thing keeping Johnson in place is there is no agreement on when he should go or who should replace him.
