There are some backbenchers who canвЂ™t believe heвЂ™s Prime Minister. вЂњThe whole circumstances of his election are upside down,вЂќ they said.В вЂњNormally you would be a leader in opposition for several years, but Boris came in all of a sudden after Theresa May on the pretext of delivering Brexit. Seeking an explanation for the ferocity of the attacks so early in his premiership, I spoke toВ a senior Brexiter who has worked closely with Johnson who explained that the circumstances of his accession to Downing Street had emboldened backbenchers. The dagger she was wielding had already been sharpened by Mitchell, the Sutton Coldfield MP, who said on my podcastВ last month that the GovernmentвЂ™s merger of the Department for International Development with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was вЂњa quite extraordinary self-inflicted wound and a terrible mistakeвЂќ. She scornfully described Frost as вЂњa political appointee with no proven expertise in national securityвЂќ.

May remarked this week that, in her nine years as a member of the National Security Council, вЂњI listened to the expert independent advice from national security advisorsвЂќ. Johnson, on the other hand, is already facing as much flak from his own side as from the Labour Leader Keir Starmer and the ferocity of the attacks is remarkable for a politician still wearing his Prime Ministerial вЂLвЂ™ plates. Her successor John Major was in power for five years before criticism of his leadership reached such a crescendo in 1995 that he was forced into a вЂback me or sack meвЂ™ leadership contest with John Redwood. Margaret Thatcher faced internal dissent to her strict monetarist policies from the start of her premiership in 1979, but it wasnвЂ™t until she sacked three вЂwetвЂ™ Cabinet ministers two years later that the serious catcalling began, led by Sir Ian Gilmour, one of the trio who had lost their jobs.

It normally takes a bit longer than this for the backbench backbiting to begin. His predecessor Theresa May this week condemned the appointment of Brexit negotiator David Frost as the new National Security Advisor, while just a fortnight ago the former International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell described JohnsonвЂ™s plan to merge his old department with the Foreign Office as вЂњa serious error of judgementвЂќ. The Conservatives are normally loyal to any leader they think will keep them in power but, little more than six months after romping home with an 80 seat majority and a vow to вЂњget Brexit doneвЂќ, Johnson has faced savage criticism from his own side. Not content with presiding over the worst Coronavirus death toll in Europe, Boris Johnson has set another unenviable record вЂ“ by enjoying the shortest honeymoon period of any Prime Minister in living memory.

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