'Johnson, like Major, is cruelly mocked, held in contempt and distrusted by most voters'

Gruesome sleaze, collapse of economic competence and a ridiculed leader – history seems to be repeating itself for the battered Conservative Party as Boris Johnson turns into another John Major.

The stench of the Tory scandals and disintegration that helped popular Tony Blair stroll into Downing Street on this day 25 years ago in 1997, the day after delivering a thumping Labour majority, is unmistakably in the air once again.

Old route maps never precisely chart the present terrain and exact roads forward to political power.