Tories turning against angry version of Boris Johnson
- Published
"He used to be fun and witty. Now he is nasty and bitter."
So says a former cabinet minister who served under Boris Johnson.
Conservative MPs are reflecting on the Privileges Committee report into Mr Johnson - and on how in the space of three and a half years he has gone from the triumph of winning a huge majority at a general election to being humiliated by his peers and no longer even in parliament.
"The martyr thing won't work," adds the former senior minister.
"He's the guy who was successful because he cracked jokes, made people feel better about themselves, and you'd want to go for a drink with. Now he's so angry."
Angry he certainly has been in recent days.
"Rubbish", a "lie", "deranged", "absurd" and "complete tripe" are just some of the words he has used to describe the report Westminster has been poring over.
There are pockets of support for Boris Johnson on the Conservative benches, but they have rapidly shrivelled.
'Heineken Tory'
"I do think people who think Boris is immortal are either paranoid or bananas," another former minister tells me.
In fact, the best way to ensure the anonymity of a Tory MP when describing what they have said in a private conversation is to say they are a "former Johnson supporter" - there are a lot of them.
Here is one who texted me earlier: "Johnson's followers and goodwill will diminish the more he and his acolytes damage the Party's electoral prospects.
"The Party is greater than any of its leaders. Leaders are leaseholders not freeholders. Johnson is not the victim here - it will be the British people if Keir Starmer enters Downing Street next year."
It is a plea to the party to get over the era of Boris Johnson and unite around Rishi Sunak.
But the reason so many Conservative MPs will only speak so candidly in private is that the business of getting over the era of Mr Johnson is not easy.
One Tory MP acknowledged to me that a big chunk of their electorate voted for them because of Boris Johnson, that he was the "Heineken Tory" - he could reach voters other Conservatives couldn't.
And does Rishi Sunak hold the same appeal to them, I asked.
"No," came the reply.
Jacob Rees-Mogg holds a copy of the committee's report
And there are plenty of Conservative Party members who have a loyalty and ongoing affection for Mr Johnson too - although how dented that might be by this week's report and his reaction to it will be interesting to observe.
'Posturing parliament'
In short, the returns are rapidly diminishing for Mr Johnson's most vociferous parliamentary supporters.
He's not coming back, at least in the short term. And he's not instantly easy to defend, either.
Make no mistake, there are those who sympathise with him, including those who have not said so publicly.
"It is posturing parliament at its worst," one told me, having read the Privileges Committee report.
But Boris Johnson has gone, from parliament at least, for now.
Monday's debate and vote on the Privileges Committee report had looked like it might be a damp squib already, shorn as it was of the jeopardy shaping Mr Johnson's future, given he's already left.
Conservative MPs had been told they would have a free vote, but on what is called a one line whip.
In other words, it wouldn't matter if they didn't turn up.
So plenty could avoid awkward conversations with their local associations and voters having voted this way or that, by finding something better to do.
And now the Conservative MP James Duddridge, a former parliamentary aide to Mr Johnson, has told BBC News: "I've spoken to Boris, he doesn't want there to be a vote. Everyone needs to calm down."
Others close to Mr Johnson echo this instinct.
Is this the end?
Why would they be saying this? It is a vote he would lose, and badly, and it might expose just how shrivelled that parliamentary loyalty to him now is.
But is this the end for Boris Johnson?
I am reminded of the late Tony Benn's remark, when he said he was leaving the Commons "to devote more time to politics".
Mr Johnson was never going to be short of offers of pulpits from which to project - and he's found one already: a column in the Daily Mail and Mail Online.
His real power and influence now will be his capacity to attract attention and disrupt.
And whatever your judgement about his other strengths and weaknesses, they are both things most would agree he is rather good at.
It's a column Downing Street could rather do without.