Boris Johnson has returned to the political wilderness

Some of his friends will tell you that beneath all the bluster and fluster, beneath the posture and the persona, Boris Johnson is actually quite like the rest of us. He has doubts and fears, good days and bad days, times when he’s up and times when he’s down. ‘Boris’ in a sense, is a construct, a costume worn by a man whose given name is actually Alexander and is sometimes known as Al.

Whatever his name, Boris or Al could be forgiven for feeling a bit down these days. Not too long ago, reaching his life’s ambition of the premiership seemed a realistic possibility. In a story that still hasn’t been fully told (wait for Tim Shipman’s book in the autumn is my advice) some friends of Boris thought on election night in June that his time had come, that Theresa May’s failure gave him his chance to take the crown.