Before escaping on an official visit to India on Wednesday, Boris Johnson ensured that headlines were dominated by his spurious attacks on the archbishop of Canterbury and the BBC, rather than his own egregious behaviour during Partygate.
Deflection and bluster are, increasingly, what gets Mr Johnson through the day. This strategy of evasion is usually complemented by an earnest plea that he should be allowed to get on with delivering the priorities of the British people. At Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions, “fixing the energy crisis” was identified as one of the key areas Mr Johnson could focus on, if only people stopped harping on about him flouting the Covid laws he set.
