Have we witnessed Boris Johnson’s heroic last stand?

The prime minister put on a defiant show at PMQs today as he tried to rally his MPs in advance of the report on lockdown parties, writes John Rentoul

Johnson managed to suggest to his own MPs that he is the opponent that Starmer really fears (REUTERS)

Boris Johnson came to the Commons today with the Sky News helicopter following his car on the 500-yard journey. Just before Prime Minister’s Questions, he entered the chamber and waited behind the speaker’s chair for the session to start. He was surrounded by ministers and whips, but seemed alone.

Simon Clarke, recently promoted to chief secretary to the Treasury, patted him on the shoulder as if he were commiserating with his imminent loss of office. Johnson studied his red folder of notes, relearning his lines, and started bouncing up and down on his feet and loosening his shoulders as if preparing to go on the cup final pitch. He looked at his watch and clenched his fist in front of his chest as if telling himself to go out there and give them what for.

He succeeded in psyching himself up more than Keir Starmer, who didn’t seem able to adjust to the failure of the Sue Gray report to materialise. The Labour leader was ready to do his prosecutorial thing on a document that damned the prime minister. With no document, Starmer was reduced to asking, without conviction, whether Johnson would resign if he had knowingly misled parliament.