The Tories hold themselves in contempt

If by the end of today 54 members of the parliamentary Conservative party have not handed in the letters required to trigger a leadership contest — or if the cabinet has not told Boris Johnson he must resign — the Tories will have revealed their contempt for the public.

The mob is fickle, they will be thinking. Granted, today’s opinion polls are dreadful — two-thirds of those questioned thought he should go. But their calculation will be that the voters can always be persuaded to ‘move on’. And no one is better than using a promise he intends to break, a stunt devoid of meaning, a bridge to nowhere or a phantom high-speed railway line to encourage the masses to shift themselves than Boris Johnson is. He’s had so much practice, after all.

Political commentators have assured them that Johnson is ‘immune to all scandal’. So let’s not be hasty. Let’s not believe that Teflon coating has worn away with overuse, leaving only the remains of an old tin pan behind.