Jovial ‘Boris’ is giving way to a sullen, brooding figure, but even a poor local election result may not deal the hammer blow
Many Conservative MPs would dump Boris Johnson in a flash if they could name the obvious successor. That is the wrong test. The replacement options become clear only once there is a vacancy, and obvious successors rarely succeed anyway. Westminster has buried many uncrowned dauphins.
There are other questions the Tories should be asking themselves. One is how much the opposition wants Johnson to stay. A lot, is the answer. For as long as Downing Street is occupied by a man who broke the law and lied about it, the government’s message is corrupted.
Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist
