Could Boris’s evidence to MPs signal a coming U-turn?

This morning, some allies of Boris Johnson were very worried about the Dominic Cummings section of the PM’s appearance before the liaison committee. They were concerned it’d produce some news line that would keep this story, which has been so damaging for the government, in lights for another day. But in the end, that section was not actually that bad for Boris Johnson. 

Several of the select committee chairs chose to deliver speeches rather than asking sharp questions. The one exception to this was Meg Hillier who pressed Boris Johnson on whether he had seen the evidence Dominic Cummings referred to at his press conference on Monday. Johnson said he had, at which point Hillier asked him if he had shared it with the Cabinet Secretary. Johnson said he had not.

The rest of the session, though, was trickier for Boris Johnson than he had expected.