Will Boris Johnson Run Out of Road - Tim Shipman (the Times) covers various - probably quite standard! - shanningans watching who MP's are talking to and meeting with. Various hints how they have been handling the rebels ("a combination of carrots and sticks with accusations that these verged towards bribery and blackmail"). Sue Gray extending her list of parties to the PM's flat - Cabinet spads in attendance w/0 any officials present. And ends essentially with the indication that there will be a number of resignations but those involved will simply be moved on elsewhere, so its clearly not career ending :-
“The senior staff are clear that we need to protect the prime minister,” said one of those in the line of fire, signalling the potential for mass resignations from Johnson’s inner circle. Rosenfield told colleagues last week they may need to “fall on their swords” — though one colleague remarked: “He didn’t give the impression he would be leaping on to the first sword.”
There are discussions about Rosenfield being offered a peerage and a ministerial job in the Cabinet Office — or to return as a mandarin to the Treasury. He could be replaced by Simone Finn, the deputy chief of staff, a more political figure. Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, could be found an ambassadorship or moved to an intelligence job such as the head of GCHQ when the post next becomes available.
There are serious questions about whether Johnson can recover. One senior Whitehall figure said: “Everyone seems to be forgetting the spectre of the Covid inquiry, which is going to have to start this year. That psychodrama is going to continue. Is Boris going to give evidence about whether he wanted the bodies to pile high? That might be better as an ex-prime minister.”
Another of the parliamentary aides in the Rosenfield meeting said: “At some point in politics you always lose the benefit of the doubt and I think that this might be the time for him. That ability to glide through scrapes is gone.”