Boris faced his end with a rueful smile. But, by God, the Tory party could live to regret it

SO The sun finally sets on Boris Johnson’s premiership. Always a political outsider, he at last succumbed to the massed ranks of his enemies within the Westminster machine.

And how they crowed. The airwaves were thick with gloating nonentities denouncing Mr Johnson and signalling their own flawless virtue.

Yet after watching his valedictory speech outside Downing Street yesterday, the Tory MPs who shamefully conspired to topple the most charismatic and electable Conservative leader since Margaret Thatcher might already be asking themselves: What have we done?

These showboaters — many of whom owe their exalted positions to Mr Johnson — have contributed to a cacophony of largely manufactured outrage.

Now their spasms of narcissistic self-righteousness are abating, are they sure that turfing out the Prime Minister over what fundamentally amounts to trivialities is a well-judged course of action?

Yes, he broke rules and dissembled. And yes, the Chris Pincher sex pest affair and a string of other Westminster scandals — which played a part in multiple by- election drubbings — were deeply unedifying.

Propriety and integrity in politics — as in life — matter. Failure to adhere to such standards corrodes trust.

But let’s be honest. Mr Johnson’s ‘crimes’ were hardly in the same league as Suez — or indeed taking the country to war on a pack of lies.

However, once he had lost the confidence of most of his party — including several Cabinet ministers — the game was up.

After they deserted him, he would have struggled to put together a government capable of delivering the ambitious agenda the country needs to face the myriad challenges ahead, from steering us through the cost of living crunch to the housing crisis and cracking down on crime.

And while it was admirable that he wanted to fight on for the sake of the country, he did the right thing by choosing to stand down with his dignity and reputation intact.

However, if the haters and cynics had expected to see a hangdog, remorseful Boris during his resignation address outside No 10, they were sorely disappointed.

Not for him the mournful demeanour of Theresa May, nor the tears of Margaret Thatcher as they announced their departure.

His words were gracious and carried not a hint of self-pity. Rather, he faced his political end with a rueful smile, accentuating the many positives of his time in Downing Street.

There were jokes about being trampled by the herd, but no bitterness or recrimination. Just thanks to the millions of voters who propelled him so dramatically into ‘the best job in the world’.

And the hope that his One-Nation agenda would be pursued with equal vigour by his successor.

His bravura performance made it all the more baffling how on earth the Tory parliamentary party could have been so stupid as to defenestrate their greatest electoral asset.

It’s truly astounding that they have dethroned someone who took them from a near-fatal nine per cent voteshare in a national election in 2019 to a stonking majority just months later.

So Mr Johnson’s downfall poses another important question: Are we entering a time where only prime ministers who pay homage to the liberal, pro-Brussels, metropolitan consensus are able to survive?

For while he was loved and admired in the country for being different from the dreary career politicians around him, the political and broadcast media establishment hated him.

His arrival in No 10 broke their monopoly, smashed through their sullen Brexit impasse, snubbed the BBC, challenged the undemocratic arrogance of the civil service ‘ Blob’ and humiliated his opponents.

Indeed, for Labour his triumphant march through the party’s northern heartlands, saving the country from a government of knuckle- dragging Corbynistas, was a setback of existential proportions.

The response of Mr Johnson’s enemies has been a daily barrage of vitriolic and personal attacks of a nature almost unprecedented in modern politics.

This unholy alliance of Leftist loudmouths, hand-wringing liberals and embittered Remainers have been cheered on by the BBC, Sky and ITN, which have abandoned all pretence of impartiality.

And their pathological anti-Boris mania has been amplified by likeminded newspapers and the deranged keyboard warriors on social media.

Worse still, this coup d’etat has been aided and abetted by Conservative MPs. Their logic, even those who bear grudges, is hard to fathom.

True, even Mr Johnson’s most passionate supporters will sometimes have found his conduct hard to defend. But for all his travails, the Tories are still within touching distance of Labour in the polls.

So the flood of ministers suddenly determined to cast him into the outer darkness resembles less a rational decision than collective hysteria.

Have they forgotten the stunning achievements to the PM’s name, short though his time in Downing Street might have been?

When Covid struck, the world-beating vaccine programme and furlough saved countless lives and jobs.

The levelling up agenda is revitalising parts of the country forgotten by successive governments.

And the doubters and cynics who say his presence in Downing Street has damaged Britain’s reputation abroad are simply just wrong.

On Ukraine especially, he has displayed immense strength when other global leaders sought to appease Putin, and he has built solid bridges with other countries — both inside and outside the Eu.

The only place he is really badmouthed is Brussels, still desperate for Brexit to fail and to see the British people punished for voting for it.

But another significant factor in his downfall was his apparent abandonment of Tory values.

His free-spending largesse alienated him from the Thatcherite wing of his party. Green levies and the rush to net zero contributed to the cost- of-living crunch. His tax rises led many backbenchers to question whether their boss was a Conservative at all.

But having guided the economy through the pandemic, he was immediately hit with an energy and inflation crisis.

He may not have got every call right, but any leader would have been faced with tough choices in such a crunch.

Labour are cock-a-hoop. They have a lacklustre leader and a policy vacuum.

The only way they can conceivably win the next election is by somehow persuading the country they would be less awful than the alternatives.

They wanted Mr Johnson toppled because they fear him at the ballot box — and rightly so.

Inevitably, there will come a period of chaos and confusion while a new leader is chosen.

But having committed regicide, are the Tories certain there is a better alternative to Boris?

Nadhim Zahawi has a head for business, but treacherously knifed the Prime Minister hours after being appointed Chancellor.

For standing up to Russia, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is popular with the grassroots.

But could even his family pick him out of a line-up?

If ex-Health Secretary Sajid Javid and former Chancellor Rishi Sunak really were the paragons of integrity they claim, they’d have spent every waking hour respectively tackling record NHS waiting lists and the cost- ofliving squeeze — not plotting to oust Mr Johnson.

By contrast, Liz Truss has performed with great aplomb at the Foreign Office, especially standing up to Brussels’ bullying in her battle to fix the flawed Northern Ireland Protocol.

So while there are decent — if not formidable — candidates, none possesses Boris’s vote-winning star quality.

But let’s not be too pessimistic — yet. Leadership contests sometimes throw up previously disregarded though outstanding candidates.

The most important tasks for our next Prime Minister, whoever that is, dovetail: the ability to beat Labour and eU fanboy Sir Keir Starmer and the determination to defend Brexit to the hilt.

The glee of the Remainers at Boris’s resignation, from sanctimonious hasbeen John Major to swivel-eyed eurocrat Guy Verhofstadt, should be a warning alarm that in the wrong hands, the UK could be dragged back into the bloc.

The successful candidate should also run on an unashamedly True Blue ticket. Tax cuts. A proper energy policy that acknowledges the deficiencies of renewables and a pragmatic approach to fracking and nuclear.

Sort out the Northern Ireland Protocol. Stop the Channel migrants and the hold on Britain of foreign courts. Protect our statues and history. And stop agreeing to see this wonderful country through the prism of racism and inequality.

The outcome of this leadership race is crucial for the future of the Tory Party — and the country. After Mrs Thatcher was ousted in 1990, it led to hopeless John Major in No 10 – then the despair of 13 years of ruinous Labour rule.

By God, let’s hope the Tories who connived to dethrone Mr Johnson don’t similarly live to regret it.