How bungling Boris has fast lost the plot

SELDOM has any prime minister, prematurely and foolishly elevated to near deification, fallen from grace as fast as Boris Johnson. The more revelations appear over this Government’s handling of the Covid crisis since January 1, the more it is revealed to have been bungled from Day One. The frenzied attempts to cover all this up rather than put it right are being exposed one by one.

Not since Anthony Eden and the ghastly Suez fiasco, which he personally endorsed, has a tumble been so fast. The reason? Among others, there is a deadly new element in the arena.

Boris Johnson is basically an old Etonian, classics scholar (which should have taught him precision), journalist (who was fired for inventing quotes) and politician to his boot heels. It is as the latter that he has a tenuous grip upon reality and the truth. But facing him across the Commons is Sir Keir Starmer, the new leader of Labour and he is lawyer, lawyer and lawyer.

For weeks, since winning that post, Sir Keir has been quietly firing the HardLeft rabble who took over under Jeremy Corbyn.With that necessary task almost done he can divert his attention to the Prime Minister. And he is revealing at Question Time he can take the blustering, rambling PM to bits and leave those morsels all over the Despatch Box.

HE NEVER raises his voice, waves his arms or shows off to the gallery, but like a cross-examining barrister he simply quotes, verbatim, from previous government pronouncements to prove the PM’s protestations that the Government got it right are complete rubbish. And, frankly, it’s about time someone did because the present shambles cannot go on or we’ll have no country left.

It seems so recent since Boris had it all. A long but successful campaign for Brexit, a stunning election victory with the Labour collapse in the North giving him an unassailable Commons majority of 80 and media adulation. Then came Covid and what will go down in history as the five-month bungle.