But it seems clear that being in power is an itch for Johnson that hasn’t gone away.
Insiders say he is obsessed with delivering on the 14 million voters who voted Conservative in 2019, many of them for the first time thanks to him.
There are already stirrings of rebellion among the members. By Saturday night, 9,150 Conservative Party members had signed a petition organized by Lord Cruddas of Shoreditch, a former party treasurer, and David Campbell-Bannerman, a former Tory MEP, demanding a say in its future.
Members want a second vote to confirm MPs’ decision to force his resignation, to be held at the same time as the official leadership vote between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
If the Cruddas campaign succeeds and Johnson wins a second member vote – well, all bets are off.
But if nothing works out, what do we know so far? On September 5, the Conservatives would have a new leader – Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak.
Johnson would leave 10 Downing Street, with his wife Carrie and children Wilfred and Romy, doing the “perpetrator’s walk” in front of waiting cameras.
Number 10 is tight-lipped about what happens next, but it is likely that Johnson will then return to the backbenches as none of the candidates to replace him have said they want him in their cabinet.
Saving his reputation
His first battle will be to save his political reputation. Harriet Harman, the Labor veteran who chairs a committee investigating whether Johnson misled MPs about the parties breaching the 10 Downing Street blockade, is sharpening her pen.
She has already requested reams of WhatsApp messages, internal documents and photographs to try to build a case against Johnson to prove he misled MPs from the dispatch box.
This could lead to a by-election recall in Uxbridge and West Ruislip, a seat Johnson only held in 2019 with a majority of 7,210.
Johnson would then be faced with a choice: either continue as an MP, fight a possible by-election his enemies are organizing against him, and return to Parliament; or to pack it all up and slip away to lick his wounds.
If he continues as an MP, he faces a long and difficult road to political redemption. From the backbench, Johnson could start publishing reports on the Red Wall, becoming the de facto spokesman for the northern seats he had done so much to win.
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