Theresa May waited a long time for this: 1,302 days to be precise.
It was on July 9, 2018, that Boris Johnson quit her Cabinet as Foreign Secretary - and began plotting her downfall so he could snatch the Tory crown.
Today, at 3.46pm, she took her revenge, telling her successor as Prime Minister: "What the Gray report does show is that No10 Downing Street was not observing the regulations they had imposed on members of the public, so either my right honourable friend (Johnson) had not read the rules or didn't understand what they meant and others around him, or they didn't think the rules applied to No10. Which was it?"
An inquiry as wounding as it was simple.
Obviously, the PM denied the claims, but Mrs May’s precise, ice-cold intervention captivated the Commons.
After she spoke, she sat straight back down and put her mask back on - as inscrutable as a stone.
MPs, even those who disagreed with her on Brexit, had always praised her dignity, resolve and integrity in Downing Street - so her words mattered.
They were the most devastating in a 110-minute parliamentary mauling for Johnson, during which opposition MPs repeatedly demanded his resignation.
The PM, growing ever more resigned to calls for him to resign, repeatedly refused to resign.
Understandably, he played for time as the Met Police investigate Partygate allegations.
But it really comes to something when the shield wielded by our country’s Premier against demands lls for his head is: “Let’s wait to hear what the cops say.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer, a QC and former Director of Public Prosecutions, risked overdoing it as he referred to the nation’s “terrible collective trauma” as people made the “most heart-wrenching sacrifices” during the pandemic “endured by all, enjoyed by none”.
His attack became increasingly personal, as he branded thrice-married Johnson - who has been accused of a string of affairs over the years - “a man without shame”.
Starmer added: “Just as he has done throughout his life he is damaging everyone and everything around him along the way.”
Temporarily chastened Johnson - whom many suspect of only being sorry he got caught - could only shake his head in despair.
After all, he knows it’s all true.
