Given that the latest poll over the weekend has LAB with an 11% lead you would have thought that Johnson would at least recognise that he needs be to contrite in a little way. There is a lot of strong feeling out there from the 80% plus of people who strictly followed the lockdown rules and after being fined you would expect Johnson not to ignore this.

The lead story in this morning’s Times under the heading “Defiant Boris Johnson insists he didn’t break Covid rules” suggests that this would be going a step too far for the man who clearly now thinks he can get away with anything. It notes:

After the fine was imposed he apologised and promised to “set the record straight in any way that I can” when parliament returned after previously telling MPs that no rules had been broken. Fresh revelations about the prime minister’s alleged role in parties in Downing Street emerged yesterday, with The Sunday Times reporting that he had “instigated” a gathering to mark the departure of Lee Cain, his director of communications, in November 2020. A source told the newspaper: “Boris came fumbling over, red box in tow, and he gathered the staff around the press office table, which did have bottles of alcohol on it. He said he wanted to say a few words for Lee and started pouring drinks for people and drinking himself. He toasted him.”

Before the weekend in the betting it was a 52% chance that he’d survive as PM until 2024 or beyond. Now that’s down to 47%.

My view is this is something that will be remembered whenever the election happens and Johnson needs to do more to show his contrition.

Mike Smithson