Johnson Can Rest Easy For Now As Tory Mood Shifts

It should be a hugely significant event. Metropolitan Police detectives have concluded that the law was broken on numerous occasions at Downing Street and Whitehall departments during the Covid-19 crisis.

- Adam Forrest

UK government staff involved in telling the nation to follow strict laws aimed at saving lives have been found to have broken those laws, and 20 fines have so far been handed out for wrongdoing.

Yet Boris Johnson is no longer “battling” to save his premiership, as was the case during the Partygate scandal’s most intense period in late January and early February.

The Ukraine crisis has helped shift the mood among Conservative backbenchers, many of whom were itching to get rid of Johnson only six weeks ago. It appears unlikely that the first Scotland Yard fines will move them back to a state of dismay with their leader.

Johnson has certainly had worse days. The drip-drip-drip of Partygate stories – from initial reports of boozy shindigs, to a photo of the PM with wine drinkers in the No 10 garden, to admissions about a birthday party and leaving drinks – had put him under huge pressure from his own MPs by the end of January.