How Boris Johnson’s early promise gave way to chaos and confusion

SIR – Boris Johnson and his chaotic, immature court are now beyond comedy.

Certainly Mr Johnson is a talented speaker and writer. However, he completely lacks the judgment, strength and gravitas to be a successful prime minister. He tries to please all of the people all of the time and ends up pleasing nobody. He is leading his party to electoral disaster.

I voted for a strong Conservative administration that would maximise the opportunities presented by Brexit. However, this Government more closely resembles a pilotless plane with engine failure. In the public interest Mr Johnson must go – and quickly.

Nicholas Dobson Doncaster, South Yorkshire

SIR – Boris Johnson is clearly out of his depth, with a coterie of advisers and hangers-on who have no idea how to even look like a party of government, let alone be one.

They have total disdain for the public and little respect for the positions they hold. I have been a loyal Conservative voter all my life but the current shambles makes me embarrassed to be so. No policies, no direction, no plan.

Neil Walker Gateshead

SIR – The video footage of No 10 staff openly joking about a party on December 18 last year is a ghost of Christmas past that will haunt the Prime Minister for a long time.

In the space of just two years he has turned from an election asset into a complete and utter liability.

Kim Potter Lambourn, Berkshire

SIR – The mock press conference presided over by Allegra Stratton has been presented as a display of contempt on the part of senior civil servants for people suffering under Covid regulations.

There is another view. Ms Stratton and her colleagues (socially distanced, note) would have been working under continuous pressure for weeks. People operating under stress – including servicemen experiencing the extreme stress of military action – will sometimes indulge in gallows humour. They are probably wise to do so: it helps relieve the strain. No disrespect was intended by the mock press conference. Disrespect only arose from the leaking of a private event into the public domain.

The Prime Minister was wrong to say that the conference sickened him, and to have apparently thrown Ms Stratton to the wolves.

Sir Harold Walker London SW14

SIR – Boris Johnson saw off Theresa May, secured Brexit and has handled the pandemic with skill and determination in the face of constant criticism.

He continues to receive a daily battering from the BBC, which appears to be out to get him.

Judy Bromley Davenport Malpas, Cheshire