Boris Johnson can’t afford many more weeks like this one

Boris Johnson will address his MPs tonight – and they are in need of some soothing. This week has strained relations between him and the parliamentary party. As I say in the Times, on Tuesday the government horrified the internationalist wing of the party by declaring that it was prepared to break international law in a ‘specific and limited way’. On Wednesday, it infuriated the libertarian wing by making it illegal, with some exemptions, for more than six people to gather together. There was particular anger about the fact that all this happened without any fresh parliamentary vote or debate.

There’s little overlap between these two factions. But picking a fight with two wings of the parliamentary party at the same time is dangerous for any prime minister.

Public support for tough Covid measures – more than sixty per cent of voters back a 10pm curfew – and Tory voters’ liking of Johnson’s hardball approach to the EU mean it is tempting to dismiss the grumblings of easily displeased MPs.