Having won that 80 seat majority for his party in December, it is really quite an achievement by Boris Johnson that so many Tory MPs want to talk to me about whether he’ll stand down – willingly or not – next year.
There is even talk that no-confidence letters are already sitting in Graham Brady’s bottom drawer calling for a leadership contest. Truthfully I don’t take the notion of an organised coup seriously. But what should worry the PM – and what the chief whip should be telling him – is that many of those who were his enthusiastic supporters in last June’s leadership contest say things to me like ‘everything that’s happening is on Boris’, ‘this is all about him’ or, ‘he’s got till next year to turn this around’.
Johnson’s critics are not just the usual suspects or those who’ve always mistrusted him or hate Brexit
Whereas there was a time when his MPs’ concerns were focused on Dominic Cummings, the point is that Johnson’s influential and controversial aide is no longer his human shield.
When Tory backbenchers moan today, it is about the PM.
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