Why did it take so long for Tory MPs to wake up to the real Boris Johnson, asks Ivor Gaber after the Prime Minister resigned as leader of the Conservative Party this week.

He’s finally gone, well actually he hasn’t quite, and nothing has so typified Boris Johnson as the manner of his (almost) leaving office.

It has to be said at the outset that no prime minister in modern times has so disgraced the office as has Boris Johnson. No prime minister has lied so blatantly and frequently, has ensured that friends, and friends of friends, benefitted so egregiously from his time in office, and surrounded himself with a bunch of incompetent and morally dubious characters who were either unable, or unwilling, to hold him in check.

This is why the fact that he intends to cling to office for a further three months could be a matter of some concern.

Johnson’s resignation speech summed up the man. It was the speech of a narcissist. There was no apology, no thanks to colleagues, no recognition that he had done anything wrong (other than fail to convince his colleagues that he should remain in office). Instead there was the clear suggestion that it was everybody else’s fault and that he was the victim of a either a conspiracy or panic by his ministers. And narcissists, when frustrated, can be dangerous, as Donald Trump demonstrated on January 6 last year.

But Johnson isn’t entirely to blame. The ministers who stayed in office, the ministers who resigned and then walked meekly back 48 hours later, the backbench lackeys hoping for a job and the colluding civil servants were all culpable and must all share some of the blame for what will be seen as the fiasco of the Johnson period of government.

Nor could Johnson’s behaviour in office come as a surprise. Throughout his life he has demonstrated characteristics that were, to say the least, unpleasant. He first came to public notice when it was revealed that he was friends with fraudster Darius Guppy, who wanted to have a journalist beaten up for exposing Guppy’s fraudulent activities.

His next shameful episode came when he was sacked as a journalist from The Times for making up quotes – quotes he attributed to his godfather. As Mayor of London his ‘association’ with the young American business woman, Jennifer Arcuri, is still being investigated. And so it goes on. Johnson’s past reveals the man for what he is – personable undoubtedly, but also deviously ruthless and dishonest.

But he had one characteristic that his Conservative colleagues found irresistible - he was a winner.

He got himself elected Mayor of London, a Labour stronghold, he led the Brexit campaign and he won the 2019 general election handsomely. Yes, Johnson was a winner; and because of that his Tory colleagues either ignored his behaviour and lies or just smiled and said ‘Well, that’s Boris’

Partygate will probably be seen as the beginning of the end. Whilst families suffered the heartbreak of not being allowed to comfort their dying loved ones, Johnson and his team were enjoying Christmas celebrations, having parties and regular Friday evening lock-ins, completely oblivious to the laws they had themselves made.

Yet even Partygate could not persuade a sufficient number of his colleagues that he was no longer fit to hold office – indeed Johnson the winner carried on winning when 60 per cent of Tory MPs backed him in the recent no confidence vote. It took his shameful behaviour over former deputy chief whip and suspended MP Chris Pincher to finally bring him down. And here again we saw the same Johnsonian characteristics in play.

Pincher had helped Johnson in a number of scrapes - he was a ‘mate’ even though Johnson reportedly called him ‘Pincher by name, Pincher by nature’. He wanted to make him his chief whip, the man in charge of ethics and discipline among Conservative MPs; he was dissuaded but still made him deputy chief whip, not a great deal of difference. He then repeatedly lied about when he first became aware of the complaints of sexual harassment that had been made about Pincher over the years – seven at the last count.

And only the day before he was forced out of office Johnson was forced to admit that he had met with a former senior KGB officer in Italy without any officials present and without informing the Foreign Office when he returned home.

So as I say, nothing so became the man as the manner of his leaving office – let us hope he goes quietly, without trying to pull the whole edifice down behind him, a not uncommon characteristic of narcissists.

Ivor Gaber is Professor of Political Journalism at the University of Sussex and a former political correspondent based at Westminster.