Boris Johnson goes full Trump in search of one last act

There is no cunning plan. No secret wheeze to secure Boris Johnson’s return to power. All there is is all there ever was, a hazy gut instinct that it is better to walk away now, keep his options open and see how the land lies in a few months. Johnson’s entire career has been a series of such gambles to delay reckonings or alter his narrative. Often they have paid off. But the former prime minister is running out of road.

The simple facts are that upon receiving a draft of the Commons investigation into whether he lied to parliament over lockdown breaches, Johnson saw the game was up. Even a Tory-dominated committee had found him guilty. He faced a sanction serious enough to raise the probability of a by-election. His parliamentary colleagues were not going to save him and, although a recent poll suggested he might win, he did not fancy the risk.