It is widely acknowledged that a week is a long time in politics but it proved to be particularly true this week for the outgoing British prime minister Boris Johnson.
It took just two days for a brewing scandal over his appointment of Chris Pincher to the post of deputy chief whip to cost him his job.
After it emerged that he had not been entirely truthful in his early pronouncements about the problematic appointment, the dominoes started to quickly fall.
Minister after minister resigned while the calls from the back benches for him to fall on his sword grew louder and louder.
Eventually they grew so loud that he had no choice but to go.
While he will remain in Downing St for weeks to come – unless there is a further push to expediate his removal – his time as British prime minister is over. “Them’s the breaks,” as he might say himself.
Denis Staunton is The Irish Times London Editor and have been following the dramatic story as it unfoled. He talks to In The News about the end of the Johnson era and looks to future and to what might happen next.
