Is this the week Boris launched his bid for the leadership?

Could this have been the week that Boris Johnson – a man whose awesome flair for selfpromotion is matched only by his inability to give loyalty – launched his strategy to seize the Tory leadership?

What is certain is that Westminster is buzzing with talk of a conspiracy by MPs to undermine Mrs May and replace her with Foreign Secretary Johnson. Indeed, we can now divine how the political drama unfolded. It started last Friday.

What triggered alarm in downing Street that day was the brutal and surprising intervention of former skills minister Nick Boles – who quit before he could be sacked when Theresa May became Prime Minister in July 2016.

In a tweet, Boles said: ‘There is a timidity and lack of ambition about Mrs May’s government which means it constantly disappoints. Time to raise your game, Prime Minister.’

The point is that Boles, recovering from a second bout of cancer, has been careful not to rock the boat since returning to the backbenches.

He was a close friend of david Cameron, but always refused to be part of the cabal of Cameroon MPs, which includes former Tory chairman Grant Shapps, dripping poison against May.

In the 2016 Tory leadership contest Boles had backed Boris. After Johnson withdrew he not only switched support to his friend Michael Gove but ran his short-lived campaign. The close relationship between Boles and Gove meant that following that critical tweet, many in downing Street suspected it echoed what Gove was also thinking.

Then, within 24 hours of Boles’s attack there was an unexpected strike against the Prime Minister by Sir Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Winston Churchill. Soames, a veteran Tory MP, said: ‘Where is the bold and brave? So far its dull, dull, dull.’

Even though Soames referred to Boris as an ‘an ocean-going clot’ he backed him for the Tory leadership following the vote for Brexit.

The day after Soames’s intervention, Ed Vaizey, who was sacked by May as arts minister, said on ITV that the Government needed ‘ big, bold ideas’ and warned against a ‘safety first approach’. Vaizey, who also backed Johnson for the leadership, happens to be a close friend of Boles.

All three MPs – Boles, Soames and Vaizey – insist that, even though they made exactly the same criticisms of the Government, they were operating independently. Whether true or not, the three-pronged attack confirmed the worst fears in No 10 that the ministerial reshuffle earlier this month failed miserably to reinvigorate and imprint firm leadership on the Tory party.

But despite the backbenchers’ tweets, at least No 10 had the consolation that to date the Cabinet had stayed on message.

Then, the first editions of Tuesday’s newspapers surfaced.

The Times had a front page story declaring: ‘Boris Johnson will seize the floor at a meeting of the Cabinet today and demand a £5billion cash injection for the NHS beginning next year.’

Johnson was going to ‘tell’ the Cabinet that billions no longer being paid to Europe after leaving the Eu should be switched to health, in order to counter the threat from labour. one Johnson supporter was quoted in the article saying: ‘The Cabinet will have to act, and sooner the better.’

downing Street was livid. There was already considerable irritation with Johnson after he stole the headlines from May over the summit with French president Macron by suggesting a bridge across the Channel. Now he was upstaging the entire Cabinet, which was meant to be gathering to discuss the Government’s response to the winter flu crisis.

Shortly before Tuesday’s meeting, ministers gathered outside the Cabinet room for coffee. When Johnson arrived he was grumbling audibly that the leak was nothing to do with him. His performance failed to win over any of his colleagues, and ministers agreed the leak was all about his over-weening ambition to be Tory leader.

The Prime Minister had already decided to take on Johnson, not least because in speeches she has repeatedly made clear the NHS, schools and housing would all benefit from the billions released as a result of leaving the Eu.

The Prime Minister opened proceedings and in her summing-up about the winter NHS crisis she turned to Johnson. ‘It’s important ministers respect the dignity and privacy of Cabinet,’ she said. ‘We make better decisions if we do.’ There was a chorus of ‘hear hears’ from around the table.

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, who spoke next, urged everyone to respect the rules of Cabinet confidentiality – as did liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary and Brexiteer. When he spoke, the Foreign Secretary neither explained nor apologised but stuck to his guns that the NHS needs extra cash, although he fluffed his lines and failed to mention the £5billion figure.

david davis was unusually critical, saying ministers had to decide if they were interested in policies which benefit patients or ‘ virtue signalling’ to the party. It was a particularly uncomfortable moment for Johnson as the Brexit Secretary sits next to him in Cabinet.

Amber rudd, the Home Secretary and a long-standing critic of Johnson, was the only one to mention him by name. Calling for the restoration of ‘trust’ she paused, leaned across to look at Johnson who sits two places from her, and said: ‘I’m talking to you, Foreign Secretary.’ Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, who backed and then withdrew support for Johnson in the leadership contest, conspicuously did not criticise him. He agreed money previously destined for the Eu should be used for the NHS but his support for Johnson was described as only lukewarm.

‘Whether you agree with Boris about the Eu and NHS money is not the point,’ said a source. ‘It was an act of rank treachery against the leader who would have to slap him down. And she did.’

one minister added: ‘ I fear he’s made a miscalculation. This has damaged his standing with Tory MPs whose support he needs for the leadership. They know he exploited Cabinet for personal ambition. Not Boris’s finest hour.’

But not everyone is critical of Johnson. one who was at the Cabinet meeting remains unequivocal in his support: ‘Boris achieved his aim of talking up the benefits of Brexit and the public know he’s on the side of more cash for the NHS. He’s one of the few ministers taking the fight to labour.’