On a sunny afternoon in July 2019, Boris Johnson swept into Number 10 - having dispatched Theresa May from the sidelines over her Brexit deal, the man who would be king had arrived.
I was in Downing Street that afternoon to witness Mr Johnson's first speech as Prime Minister. It was peppered with a fanciful boosterism that has come to define his career - things were going to change, we were told. His mission would be to "unite our country" and "answer the plea of the forgotten people and the left behind towns". Gone was the dour outlook of Mrs May and the austerity of David Cameron.
But as has so often proven to be the case throughout his premiership, his rhetoric on that day did not match his actions. Moments after preaching unity, Mr Johnson walked through the famous black door of Number 10 and immediately set about sacking rivals and taking revenge on those who had blocked his ambition. I vividly remember bumping into a panicked minister in Portcullis House that afternoon, who had received a blunt summons to Downing Street - he told me 'this is like that scene at the end of the Godfather, where there's multiple retribution killings'.
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Ironic therefore that Mr Johnson's fast approaching exit - much like his entry - is brutal. Old allies, new Red Wall kinsmen and party grandees have all turned against the Prime Minister. Even the British public, who Mr Johnson so often cited as his main backers, have grown tired of his act.
And it was so often an act, I remember my first interview with Mr Johnson in 2018. He was foreign secretary and visiting a Metropolitan Police warehouse where seized foreign imports were stored. He arrived an hour late and unbeknownst to him - a room full of officers and myself watched as he exited his ministerial car, took a look at his reflection, skewed his tie, ruffled his hair and walked into the room - full of that famous Bertie Wooster bluster. The police had hoped for a PR piece about the work they were doing, backed by a positive Johnson quote - instead he stole the headlines after quipping that a stuffed monkey resembled a Labour MP.
Again and again throughout his career, we've seen this behaviour - his ability to grab a headline and position himself as the anti-politician has been a referendum and multi-election winning strategy. But his tactics, while effective, have ultimately been his undoing.
Take Brexit, he was able to smash his opponents in the Tory leadership race in 2019 and Jeremy Corbyn at the Christmas election that year on the basis of having an 'oven ready deal'. After passing that deal, he proudly claimed to have 'got Brexit done' - the collapse of the administration in Stormont and continued difficulties with the Northern Ireland Protocol clearly demonstrate that not to be the case. On levelling up, many of the most deprived areas have missed out on funding and on transport Northern Powerhouse Rail has been scaled back.
Time and time again we've seen Mr Johnson claim to have done one thing and the reality tells us different. This latest scandal is no different, there was first denial over Chris Pincher and then obfuscation and then expressions of regret - this of course comes just months after Mr Johnson used the same playbook on Partygate.
It was a bridge too far for Tory ministers, who resigned en masse this week. While Mr Johnson may soon be leaving Downing Street, make no mistake - he won't have left the political stage. His spectre will haunt the Conservative Party and Britain for years to come. Whether through newspaper columns, TV appearances or backbench interventions - Mr Johnson will be there, arguing that if he hadn't been ousted things would have been different and Britain would have reached his famed "sunlit uplands".
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