Starmer’s tough line on Brexit made Johnson expendable to Leavers

Protesters against Brexit and Boris Johnson outside the Houses of Parliament last month. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

For some reason, the last days of Boris Johnson’s leadership of the Conservative party reminded me of the last days of Nero. That self-serving, delusional speech outside No 10 evoked echoes of Suetonius’s version of the dying words attributed to Nero: “Qualis artifex pereo” – What an artist dies in me.

So much done! Brexit Unchained! So much more to be achieved … (Sorry. Sarcasm is dangerous.)