In his New Year’s message for 2022, Boris Johnson made a plea to Brits to get vaccinated to see off the Omicron wave and ensure brighter times lay ahead.
A year on, Covid has faded from the headlines and Mr Johnson is out of Downing Street, replaced - briefly - by Liz Truss and then Rishi Sunak.
It’s been a whirlwind year for the scandal-hit former Prime Minister.
From the Mirror’s Partygate revelations to the endless rows over the refurbishment of Downing Street flat and his brazen attempts to save his allies from being ousted over sleaze and lobbying breaches, his MPs decided in July that they’d finally had enough.
He eventually left No10 in September but it wasn’t over. He threatened to make an eleventh hour leadership bid weeks later, before pulling out at the last minute.
Even now his allies are still claiming that he could make a dramatic return.
But with Mr Sunak in No10, what comes next for Mr Johnson?
Making money
Mr Johnson has been cashing in since he left Downing Street, earning a cool £1million for speeches in just three months.
His latest entry in the register of members' interests shows he pocketed more than £750,000 for three speeches in New York, New Delhi and Lisbon in November.
But he still lives rent-free in a billionaire Tory donor’s house. JCB boss Lord Bamford and his wife Lady Bamford have been putting up the Johnsons in a Cotswolds cottage, worth a staggering £40,500 for just four months.
Despite his fall from grace, Mr Johnson clearly still commands support and global interest - suggesting this is just the start of his money-making.
The dad-of-seven was said to have struggled on his measly £164,000 Prime Minister’s salary and two rent-free homes - No10 and Chequers, the PM’s country retreat.
He ended up in hot water for allowing Tory donors to pay for luxury holidays and the refurbishment of his No11 flat.
Mr Johnson recently suggested he would start doing "lucrative" theatrical renditions of classic poems after an “unexpected hiatus” in his career, in a bizarre article in the Spectator.
Being an MP is regarded as a full-time job, with a basic salary of £84,144 per year.
But remember that in 2009 he famously described the £250,000-a-year he received for writing a Telegraph column as “chicken feed”.
He also has a long overdue book about Shakespeare to write - and could even return to journalism if the price was right.
Partygate lies probe
Mr Johnson might want to put Partygate behind him but the scandal isn’t done with him yet.
The Commons Privileges Committee is investigating whether he deliberately misled Parliament about lockdown boozing in Downing Street during the pandemic.
Plans for hearings this autumn - at which Mr Johnson will be called as a witness - have reportedly been delayed by No10 dragging its feet to provide evidence.
The committee demanded a tranche of documents, including the ex-PM’s diaries, WhatsApps, emails and No10 logs, which was only said to have been handed over last month.
The seven-strong committee - which includes four Tories - investigates MPs who break Parliament’s rules.
Investigations are very rare and only happen when ordered by the whole House of Commons.
The committee, led by Labour grandee Harriet Harman, was asked to investigate whether Mr Johnson deliberately misled Parliament over Partygate.
It will focus on four statements the-then PM made in December 2021 after the Mirror broke the news of lockdown-flouting bashes in Downing Street.
These include claims that “all guidance was followed” and “no rules were broken”. Doubt was cast on this when Mr Johnson, his wife Carrie and the now PM Rishi Sunak were all fined by the Met Police for breaching Covid rules.
Scotland Yard issued 126 fixed penalty notices in total to 83 individuals over lockdown events in Downing Street and Whitehall.
Deliberately misleading Parliament is a serious matter. If Mr Johnson is found to have done so, he would be in contempt and face suspension from the Commons.
This could see him kicked out of Parliament. A suspension of more than 10 days automatically triggers a recall petition, where constituents are asked if they want to oust their MP. If 10% of voters back the recall, a by-election is called.
Covid inquiry
Mr Johnson’s pandemic record is going to come under intense scrutiny through the Covid-19 public inquiry.
The second stage of the probe will examine political decision making, including whether late lockdowns cost lives or law-flouting at the top of Government undermined public confidence.
The inquiry plans to go through Mr Johnson’s WhatsApps as it seeks to identify any “plainly wrongful decision-making and significant errors of judgement”, according to Hugo Keith KC, the lead counsel for the inquiry.
Witnesses will give evidence to the inquiry in the summer, with Mr Johnson and other top figures such as the-then Health Secretary Matt Hancock and ex-No10 aide Dominic Cummings all expected to be hauled in.
The statutory inquiry is expected to take several years but the looming hearings have the potential to be explosive.
A return to frontline politics
Mr Johnson signed off his final PMQs by declaring “Hasta la vista baby”. And his farewell speech contained a series of chaotic metaphors signalling that his time at the forefront of politics is far from over.
He told a crowd of loyal allies outside Downing Street that he would back his successor's Government and compared himself to a "booster rocket" and Roman statesman Cincinnatus.
But booster rockets are usually rescued by boat after crashing into the sea and refurbished for reuse.
And 5th Century Roman politician Cincinnatus stepped down from political life to return to his farm but was recalled to serve a second time to suppress a popular uprising.
Mr Johnson has let it be known in recent weeks that he'll stand again in 2024, which has set tongues wagging in Westminster.
A grassroots push to get him on the ballot in the summer leadership race has morphed into a fully fledged movement called the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), vowing to give members the power to oust moderate MPs and take control of the party's national agenda.
It could prove useful if he ever has designs on power again.
He still has his supporters - and tensions remain with Mr Sunak, who was blamed by his allies for his downfall.
Last month, former Tory chairman Jake Berry said Mr Johnson "will come back", adding: “He’s a bit like the Conservative Party ’s mistress - something he knows about. The tempting other woman. The king over the sea.”
If Mr Sunak can't turn his poll ratings around ahead of the next election, the Tories might start looking elsewhere.
Nadine Dorries, one of Mr Johnson's biggest cheerleaders, said this week that the ex-PM could be back in No10 by Christmas.
"I think there is a chance if the polls keep sliding by this time next year we will see Boris Johnson back in Downing Street," she told the Express.
"Many of the people who were anti-Boris realise they are nothing without their seat."
