Boris Johnson: Nine eye-opening months at Westminster

BBC Wales' Westminster Correspondent says his nine months in the job have been dominated by controversy surrounding Boris Johnson

I've been BBC Wales' Westminster Correspondent for just over nine months.

The job has been dominated by a man who will, one way or another, go down in British history: Boris Johnson.

I'm writing this sitting outside The Globe Theatre on London's South Bank - the legacy of another man whose place in history is assured.

And I cannot help but wonder what he might have written about all this.

A man who so brutally captured the bitter fighting between Montague and Capulet or the destructive intra-familial rivalry in King Lear.

Perhaps a Comedy of Errors is a more appropriate comparison.

Those who have always closely followed Boris Johnson had always predicted it would end this way: that his inability to confront controversy, say no, grapple with difficult issues and his relationship with the truth would bring him down.

It's been an eye-opening time to be at Westminster, and I have to confess I am not sure that this is what the job would normally be like.

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Yes, there have been dominant issues before: Scottish independence, Brexit, the financial crisis, the cost of living crisis; but this time the dominant issue has been the future of one man.

Boris Johnson became prime minister in 2019

And it has gone on incessantly for months: from the Paterson saga, to partygate, to the resignation of the ethics adviser, to defeats in by-elections.

Millions will give Mr Johnson credit for getting Brexit done. Hundreds of thousands of them in Wales, which voted to leave the EU.

But with Northern Ireland's border issues unresolved and a slumping rate of Sterling it is an open question as to 'how well' Brexit was done.

Where does this leave Wales?

Plaid Cymru see the whole affair as a rallying call for independence. Their leader in the Commons Liz Savile Roberts called Boris Johnson their most effective recruiting sergeant.

Labour see the chance to run governments both in the Senedd and at UK level if and when a Westminster General Election comes.

And even before the resignation they had been privately confident of winning back seats they lost in 2019 like Bridgend and Wrexham.

So the curtain falls on Boris Johnson's eventful premiership.

It's not quite exit pursued by a bear, but the claws that have been out for him for quite some time have finally found their mark.