A little-known Conservative MP, Christian Wakeford, defecting to Labour at the start and a grandee telling Boris to go at the end for seeking to “escape responsibility” for the partygate scandal.

And in doing so, likening the PM to Neville Chamberlain, to many, the great appeaser, and replaced by Johnson’s hero, Winston Churchill. The timing of both acts of sabotage was done to maximise the damage to Johnson; politics, remember, is a blood sport.

David Davis, the seasoned former Brexit Secretary, never misses an opportunity for high drama and, boy, did he achieve it with his exhortation “in the name of God, go”. The PM tried his best to get back on the front foot after the previous day’s display of contrition when the country’s leader appeared a broken man as he was questioned about his staff partying the night away in Downing St just hours before the Queen sat alone in the chapel at Windsor Castle, mourning her beloved husband.

The fact that there doesn’t seem to be a day that goes by without Boris’s woes dominating the headlines is never a good sign and usually points to only one outcome. However, the PM’s backers insist he is a “fighter,” who has from Brexit through to the vaccination programme and the growing economy achieved a great deal and the pluses outweigh the negatives.

They are urging colleagues to wait for the Gray report into the partygate scandal. It’s due next week. But the tumult is not abating. PMQs was another exercise in Keir Starmer and Ian Blackford pushing hard at Boris to heave him over the cliff while the PM was clinging onto any vegetation, he could find to prevent them from doing so. Like many of the electorate, several Tory MPs have made up their minds already given the evidence and Johnson’s woeful, shape-shifting performance over partygate.

The question on everyone’s lips at Westminster continues to be: does Sir Graham Brady, Chairman of the Conservative 1922 backbench committee, have the 54 MPs’ names expressing no-confidence in the PM to trigger a leadership contest? Parliament’s corridors and lobbies have been awash with speculative huddles. Yes he does. No he doesn’t. No one knows. Including Andrew Bridgen, the Leicestershire Tory, who has publicly called for Boris to go. The backbencher said he expected 20 more letters to go to Sir Graham by the end of play today. He also suggested Wakeford’s defection would “encourage a considerable number of others who are wavering to put their letters in,” adding: “We will get to the threshold of 54 this week. Graham Brady will announce we are having a confidence vote next week, probably Tuesday or Wednesday”.

But, like the rest of us, he doesn’t know for sure. It certainly appears to be the case that the 2019 intake of red-wall Tory MPs is a driving force to oust Boris. They met privately yesterday to discuss his future in what has been dubbed the “pork pie plot” given the alleged involvement of Alicia Kearns, who represents Melton Mowbray. Yesterday, the PM visited the House to meet with the 2019ers and supposedly implored them, saying: “What do I need to do?”

The fact that some senior colleagues have privately dubbed the red-wallers “traitors” and “f***ing nobodies” hasn’t lifted the mood of acrimony. Will any other Conservative MP follow the example of the member for Bury South and cross the floor? Of course, the 2019ers largely hold northern English seats and represent a new faction within Tory ranks that, due to the pandemic, has not been initiated into the parliamentary party's groupthink as their predecessors have been and come with a different outlook to the traditional shire Conservatives. They would have also seen the latest polling, which suggests the Tories would lose all but three of the 45 red-wall seats, which were won at the 2019 election. According to one snapshot, Labour now enjoys an 11-point lead across these seats; three years ago, the Conservatives had a nine-point one. Nothing concentrates an MP’s mind like survival.

Whether Wakeford’s defection or Davis’s wielding of the political dagger moves Tory MPs’ minds in one direction, or another is difficult to say. But they certainly keep up the pressure on beleaguered Boris, who looks more damaged by the day. Downing St confirmed he would contest a leadership challenge. But it surely would rest on what the Gray report reveals.

All the while, the inscrutable Sir Graham is calmly watching his inbox and his parliamentary postbag from the quiet haven of his oak-lined parliamentary office; a pencil and notepad by his side. Is the fat lady clearing her throat?