It’s easy to become numb to the madness of Boris Johnson

What was Boris Johnson up to at the Privileges Committee? The former prime minister has just finished more than three hours of evidence on whether he deliberately misled the Commons over partygate. In his opening statement, he said ‘hand on heart, I did not lie to the House’. One of his repeated insistences was that he was just doing the ‘right thing’ when he was thanking staff who were leaving, despite MPs on the committee also repeatedly insisting that the guidance at the time clearly did not allow this.

He also appeared to lose his cool at times. ‘People who say that we are partying in lockdown simply do not know what they are talking about!’ he snapped at one point. This appearance of emotion was probably calculated rather than genuine. Johnson wanted to leave everyone watching with the distinct impression that he was totally baffled by the suggestion he thought the events being discussed were rule-breaking.