Report lays bare Johnson's lack of leadership and direction

In office, Boris Johnson liked to see himself as a latter-day Winston Churchill. But the Covid report published last week, describing his toxic, chaotic and indecisive No 10, ought finally to put paid to any delusions that he had the qualities necessary to be a prime minister, let alone one guiding a country through a deadly national emergency.

- Rowena Mason

The claim among Johnson's supporters that he could make a political comeback also now looks increasingly dead in the water.

The Covid report is damning about his lack of personal leadership and direction - faults that showed up later in his time at No 10 during the Partygate scandal.

The report may not reveal anything truly new about Johnson’s character, but the official conclusion that more lives could have been saved if not for a “lost month” of inaction in February 2020 is highly damaging for the former politician.

In the words of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families group, it is “devastating to think of the lives that could have been saved under a different prime minister”.