THE RESIGNATION of Allegra Stratton may be enough to quell the rage of Tory backbenchers, but it will not satisfy all MPs.

Yesterday’s Prime Minister’s questions was barely audible for those of us sitting in the Commons, due to the shouts and jeers from the opposition benches.

MPs from Labour and the SNP were almost gleeful about the golden ticket they had been handed prior to the weekly questioning session. Ian Blackford called for Mr Johnson to resign (again), while Keir Starmer repeated what he said last week – the public had been taken for fools. Neither nailed their questioning, and allowed the Prime Minister to stick to his rehearsed lines; criticising the opposition MPs for ‘playing politics’ while he was ‘getting on with the job’.

The most powerful question about the Christmas party came from Labour’s Dr Rosena Alin-Khan, who spoke of children having to say goodbye to their dying parents on an iPad, and people having to wave ‘Merry Christmas’ to elderly relatives from the side of the road due to the coronavirus restrictions in place last year. She then asked simply how Mr Johnson can sleep at night.

Her question was so effective as it reflected the views of ordinary members of the public, almost all of whom had to adapt their plans last Christmas due to a last-minute change of the rules. Almost all of us know someone affected by coronavirus, and most have bent over backwards to obey them. The sense that the people who are making the rules do not appear to follow them themselves is beginning to stick in the minds of voters, and will undoubtedly be reflected in opinion polls over the coming weeks.

And why does it matter? On a public level, it’s obvious – the Prime Minister cannot ask people to do one thing when he and his staff do another. On a political level, however, the Christmas party could be much more dangerous for PM. If it emerges that he knew about the gathering last December, he would have misled the Commons and his position could be untenable.

Mr Johnson may have taken responsibility for what happens in Government, but the tearful doorstep resignation of his spokeswoman Ms Stratton, outside her plush North London home, risks detracting from the other elephant in the room – the party itself.

Numerous sources have spoken about the event, attended by dozens of senior aides on December 18 2020, yet Mr Johnson continued to insist that there “was no party”. Despite his assurances that nothing untoward took place, he has called for the head of the civil service to investigate.

Yesterday No.10 was unable to confirm that the man leading the investigation, Simon Case, was not himself in attendance at the event– to do so would be an acknowledgement that the party had taken place.

The Prime Minister appears to have painted himself, and his ministers who have defended him for the past week, into a corner and Ms Stratton is now becoming the scapegoat.