[BoxOfRain]

I'd love to know who's trying to oust him with all these leaks about lockdown parties at Number 10, it's been an absolutely masterful bit of politicking. They wait just long enough for Johnson to commit to the lie, then drop another leak that discredits his previous defence. My current theories are:

* Michael Gove: he's always had leadership ambitions and is good mates with Malcolm Tucker-esque figure Dominic Cummings who's well known for his ability with this kind of shit-stirring from his experience with Vote Leave and the 2019 Tory election campaign. Gove has backstabbed Johnson before (he sabotaged Johnson's leadership bid at a previous election) and while he's nominally a Johnson loyalist I'd definitely bet he's got the guts and the motivation for an 'et tu, Gove' movement.

* Dominic Cummings: he's definitely got an axe to grind against Johnson after he (allegedly) got forced out of the tent by Johnson's wife Carrie Johnson who's apparently exercising a lot of influence at Number 10. This might be purely a spite move! He's an interesting character, he's never really been a Conservative ideologically and is clearly an intelligent political operator with his own agenda revolving around breaking up the 'blob' of bureaucratic inertia in the Civil Service in favour of a more data-driven culture associated with the tech world. I still don't really know what to make of him if I'm honest and he's been around for years now.

* The Coronavirus Recovery Group, a faction of Tory backbenchers opposed to lockdowns and other COVID restrictions. Someone was definitely trying to sabotage Matt Hancock last year in a similar fashion, and someone on the inside had to be leaking the CCTV footage of his hypocrisy (for those unware, he was the Health Secretary during the first stage of the pandemic and very hawkish on lockdowns until he got caught breaking his own mandates to get off with a member of his staff - both were married). The Tory backbench is on the whole increasingly anti-restrictions and this could be a way of achieving this policy - these revelations of an entrenched culture of hypocrisy and 'one rule for the little people, another for the elites' have certainly destroyed the credibility restrictions had with the public indeed they're being rapidly phased out for the most part.