Voters will be cheated after this Pacino-style face-off

THE comparison is flattering to both but I picture the final showdown between Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak last October as that stunning scene in Heat when Robert De Niro and Al Pacino face each other across a table in a diner.

- Guto Harri

One's a cop. The other an armed robber and serial murderer. They get on well but neither forgets his role: "If I'm there and I've got to put you away, I won't like it... but brother you're going down." De Niro explains the flip side: "You won't get in my way. I will not hesitate. Not for a second".

I wasn't there when Liz Truss crashed the government (and economy) and Boris had to decide if he was gonna get in the way of Rishi's coronation. But from what I understand, you could have scripted it in similar terms.

Boris: "We both know if we go to the members that I will crush you!" Rishi: "... and we both know that if you do that I can ensure the parliamentary party prevents you forming a government." Boris must have blinked, because we know the outcome, and that for me was the last time, this side of a general election at least, that Boris could have possibly come back.

Now I'm not so sure. It's almost impossible to predict what impact his standing down from Uxbridge will have on his prospects but what he undoubtedly did over the weekend was take back control.