Boris Johnson, the Once and Perhaps Future Tory King

Nothing became him in life like the leaving of it, says a character from Macbeth of the traitor Cawdor’s acceptance of his execution. Boris Johnson may have once been commissioned to write a study of Shakespeare but he has never taken that particular line to heart. Perhaps that’s why he returned the publisher’s advance.

Late on Friday, Johnson resigned abruptly as an MP rather than fight a by-election after an investigation found that he had misled Parliament over the Downing Street parties scandal. In a vituperative 1,000-word statement he condemned his accusers and then launched a frontal assault on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for betraying Brexit and leading the Conservative party to electoral disaster. He is unlikely to go gentle into that good night.