PAUL MALIK

What a difference five-and-a-half weeks makes.

Mr Johnson, at the end of July and having just been named prime minister, bounced off HMS Victorious with such vim, vigour and bravado that I was sure he was hard pressed not to burst into renditions of Rule Britannia.

Yesterday’s visit, by contrast, could not have been more different. It was as if someone had let all of the (hot) air out of him, leaving a deflated, almostdefeated shell of a man.

Admittedly, Mr Johnson had an early start, selling himself short at a fish market in Peterhead. When asked if the big box of seafood he had bid £185 on (in an albeit mock-auction) was good business, one local trader noted: “If you’re selling”.

By the time he got to the picturesque Kincardineshire farm where the press had gathered, you could maybe forgive him for being a bit tired.

Everyone goes into the first week of a new job hoping to just get through the week. Try to find out where the mugs are kept, maybe not get trapped in the supply closet while looking for pens, and certainly do not do anything which could seriously limit your time in the role – that sort of thing.

So spare a thought for our beleaguered prime minister.

His government was defeated five times in its first two days (by contrast, it took Theresa May two years to tot-up as many losses) and the EU still do not look like wavering on their commitment to the Irish backstop.

On top of the defeats, to really rub it in, it now looks like the man who will get Brexit done, “no ifs, no buts”, will have to get down to begging for an extension to the Brexit deadline on October 31.

For a man like Mr Johnson, who does not go back on his word without a fight, he is now even considering breaking this country’s law in order not to do so. Exhausting.