A double by-election defeat: Voters have run out of patience with Boris Johnson

Editorial: The prime minister may not realise how devastating the damage is to him, but his party chairman does

The prime minister says he will listen but carry on (AFP/Getty)

If anyone were in any doubt about the prime minister’s capacity for arrogance, the few words he offered from Rwanda were evidence enough.

The prime minister says he will listen but carry on. Listen, in other words, but take no notice of the message from electors in Devon and Yorkshire. The message being that they do not have confidence in him.

The prime minister may not realise how devastating the damage is to him, but his party chairman does. Oliver Dowden has resigned rather than defend the indefensible any longer. The media round was no longer an option. In his letter to Mr Johnson, he omitted the usual pledge of personal loyalty, and the implications of that are perfectly plain for his colleagues. As he put it, the party cannot go on like this.

The question arises as to precisely what is going to change things. As Michael Howard suggests, it is a moment for the cabinet to act to save the party, and indeed the country, from further agonies and humiliations at the hands of the prime minister. That is exactly what happened in 1990, during the fall of Margaret Thatcher, as the now Lord Howard should well remember, because he was there.

It is said by the dwindling Boris fan base that this is not the time to change leaders because of the crises facing the country. Yet that is exactly why the country needs fresh and honest leadership. The economic challenges are so severe they demand a plan, a vision, and a sense of purpose. This is precisely what Mr Johnson has been unable to supply.

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It is also argued that he got the big calls right. That is debatable, given the continuing attempts to renegotiate Brexit, the appalling death toll from Covid and the fact that any British leader would support Ukraine. Yet even if those claims about Mr Johnson’s record were true, his colleagues still need to look to the future. And here, the prime minister offers nothing but waffle and slogans. He is not even much of a vote-winner these days.

Nor should the Conservatives any longer tolerate the prime minister’s casual attitude to the law, which is going to do more lasting damage both to his party and the UK’s reputation. The latest accusations about him trying to find his then girlfriend a government job on a six-figure salary are just the latest instalment in a dirty saga.

The prime minister has run out of time because the voters have run out of patience. Where there is a will, there’s a way and between his cabinet, his MPs and his activists, there should be found a way of ending Mr Johnson’s doomed leadership. But he won’t go quietly.