Few falls from political grace have been as abrupt and as vertiginous as that of Boris Johnson, ousted from 10 Downing Street little more than three years after his arrival.
Elected on a wave of enthusiasm from both Conservative party members and MPs, Johnson initially seemed an unstoppable phenomenon – one of those rare politicians not only instantly recognisable to the public but also liked by large swathes of them, sparking enthusiasm among constituencies formerly unattainable to the Tories.
Promising to take the UK to the fabled “sunlit uplands” of Brexit, he presented himself – and was accepted by many voters – as a “fresh start”, somehow unconnected to the years of austerity under David Cameron and the tortured agonies of Theresa May’s time in charge.
