As ministers argued with the PM’s inner circle late into the night, fears grew in Whitehall of a ‘Trump moment’
, told insiders the appearance had been “about as bad as it is possible to be”.
In fact, late on Wednesday evening, figures across Westminster and Whitehall began to worry about just how far Johnson would go in his refusal to relinquish power. Levels of denial inside the bunker had become all too much for one cabinet minister. “They’re all mad,” he despaired to a friend. “They’re all mad.”
Ironically for a prime minister who set himself against the conventions and norms of the Whitehall establishment, it was the quiet but devastating intervention of an official that had set the dominoes falling on Tuesday. That was followed by a disastrous briefing with political journalists, in which Downing Street struggled to deal with questions over exactly what the prime minister had known about the allegations against Pincher. The decision was made to get Johnson in front of a camera as soon as possible, to make an apology for his handling of the affair and “eat some shit” to avoid resignations., they thought they may have acted quickly enough to arrest any further damage.
In fact, even though several cabinet ministers began to make clear they were not resigning, MPs had begun to quit posts as envoys, ministerial aides and party vice-chairs. Matters took their most bizarre turn during Johnson’s liaison committee hearing a couple of hours later. Huw Merriman, one of the MPs due to question Johnson,calling for the prime minister’s resignation while sitting just a few metres away from him.
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