Is partygate a Remainer plot?

The mood in Westminster this morning is febrile as Tory MPs plot to consider their leader’s future. Facing questions over partygate, plunging polls and mutinous ministers, can anything save Boris Johnson? Well, yes, but perhaps salvation comes in an unlikely form. For in another typically brilliant intervention, Lord Adonis — Britain’s most ironically titled peer — has reminded Boris-doubters what they stand to lose if they eject him by suggesting ‘If Boris goes, Brexit goes’ too.

The ardent Remainiac appears to have said the quiet part out loud in articulating the feelings of many Johnsonite critics. Across the Labour party, the wider liberal establishment and indeed in the civil service itself, many are silently hoping that partygate could be the moment they finally get rid of the Vote Leave figurehead – though not all are unwise enough to tweet this out publicly.