It is almost a year to the day since it finally dawned on most Conservatives that Boris Johnson would ultimately have to go. And yet, a whole two prime ministers later, it’s almost as if he never left.
This time last May, he was trying to bluster his way out of trouble following the publication of Sue Gray’s report describing how cleaners found wine stains up the walls after lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street. Fast forward a year and here he is again, cornered at an airport, harrumphing that it’s “absurd” to think he might have done something wrong just because Cabinet Office lawyers working on his defence at the Covid inquiry identified from his own diaries several new potential breaches of Covid regulations requiring investigation. (If this is the defence, imagine the case for the prosecution.) Back to the drawing board for the cross-party Commons privileges committee, then, which had almost finished its report on whether he lied to parliament about lockdown parties and must now be wondering whether this will ever end.
