If Boris Johnson wants to go down in a blaze of glory, he needs to do the unthinkable and resign

There is life after power. Perhaps the prime minister could return to the backbenches, writes Salma Shah

The full scale of the rebellion is known but who was behind the 148 votes against the PM is going to remain difficult to list (AP)

Master strategy has thus far eluded our beleaguered prime minister. Several attempts to shake up his top team have left him no closer to solving the mystery of why his government can’t get a grip. If he has any hope of making a typically Boris Johnson-style comeback from his slim vote of confidence victory, he should revert to his maverick tendencies and resign in order to run in a leadership contest.

Please don’t come at me with your tedious takes about how he’ll never do the honourable thing and leave his post. This is not a suggestion to lobotomise him in the hopes of changing the habits of a lifetime. Resigning would simply upend everyone’s assumptions and create enormous chaos, something he seems rather good at.

The lack of an alternative leader has been a strong and plausible line of defence thus far. Why not put it to the test and see whether it stacks up? Could he reinvigorate his position by wrongfooting disgruntled backbenchers and take the fight to the wannabes? Would he risk it all to gain it back again?

He’s got little to lose. We know the rebels are disorganised malcontents, not playing into a strategy but channelling their anger aimlessly into confidence letters. But this is a huge disadvantage for the bods in No 10 who should be furiously gaming all potential scenarios. It is very hard to predict where your enemy will go next when they’re engaging in guerrilla warfare.

The full scale of the rebellion is known but who was behind the 148 votes against the PM is going to remain difficult to list. These individuals know that the PM’s days are numbered but have no mechanism to get rid of him so they will slowly make things harder. Firing off in different directions, discipline will break down and it will become unmanageable by the whips. Threatening a reshuffle, which has been mooted, will fail to have the desired effect.

All this against a backdrop of further terrible headlines on the economy coupled with stagnant government plans that can’t be delivered will make Johnson’s situation continuously worse. He has been central to the demise of two predecessors so knows how this pans out. You win a vote but the die has been cast, you try and relaunch your leadership but no one is really paying attention and have started downing tools.

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Instead of allowing nature to take its course and limp onto defeat, why not try going down in a blaze of glory and do the unthinkable? John Major called a vote in himself because it was headed in that direction, David Davis resigned as an MP and re-stood to make a point, though no one can quite remember what it was. Sure, this strategy has some mixed outcomes but you’ve got to admit, it’s an interesting play.

If it all goes wrong, he will find it hard to be world king emeritus, but there is precedence, even the Pope has a living predecessor and our beloved Queen has taken on an apprentice with gusto in recent times.

There is life after power. Perhaps he could return to the backbenches and instead of “squatting like a giant toad over British politics” as he was once described by political editor Tim Shipman? He could squat like a toad in party grandee status, writing books and causing trouble. His departure in any case has to reflect his political life and that can only be dramatic.