Boris Johnson’s impression of ‘Donald Trump with A-levels’ probably won’t climax in a full-scale violent insurrection on the streets of Whitehall.
But when he does get dragged out of Downing Street, he’ll have the black paint of the No10 front door wedged deep under his fingernails.
Downing Street are already saying the PM continues to believe he commands a majority in his party, despite the steady stream of resignations in the last 24 hours.
But will Johnson go of his own accord? Or will he (metaphorically or literally) handcuff himself to the gates of Downing Street?
Well, as the late, great William Goldman would say, nobody knows anything.
One source who knows the PM well said Johnson is “done” and if the resignations keep coming, he’ll be “gone by the end of the week.”
Others are less optimistic. A few months ago a former Tory MP told me it would take losing an election for him to leave, “and maybe not even then.”
Another told me today they didn’t think he’d quit even if the 1922 committee changed the rules, and even if his MPs voted no confidence in him this time, he won’t resign.
Instead, he’d insist he still had a mandate from 14 million voters, and if they tried to force him out he’d force an election - stopping only to deselect everyone who’s spoken out against him.
An apocalyptic scenario, you might think. But not hugely dissimilar to his playbook while his back was against the wall over Brexit back in 2019 - when he withdrew the whip from 21 of his own party’s stalwarts who’d opposed him.
And at the time of writing, the PM is still scheduled to go up against the Liaison Committee this afternoon - a 90 minute grilling from committee chairs, many of whom dislike him a great deal.
If there was even an inkling in my mind that I was going to quit, I’d probably find some way of getting out of such an onerous engagement.
The next step, it’s said, could be for the grey suits of the 1922 executive to pay him a visit, put the proverbial whiskey and revolver on the table, and tell him his time’s up.
That’s what eventually did for Theresa May, who while the resignations started coming in on Tuesday night, was watching a different clown opera play out - Pagliacci at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
The play ends with the words: “The comedy is over.”
