It reads like a declaration of war – but in reality, Friday’s resignation statement matters because Boris Johnson is throwing in the towel on his political career.
Yes, there are hints of a third political comeback in his kinetic resignation statement.
“Never write him off,” say the pundits in the cheap seats.
Yes, there will be MPs bemoaning his departure if the Tories underwhelm at the next general election and calling for him to return. But he will not be there.
Johnson had a choice this week – and he could have chosen to remain.
That would have meant to stand and fight the verdict of the privileges committee, with all the opprobrium that he feels is unfairly heaped upon him.
Politics live: Boris Johnson quits
Then he would have had to watch as Tory MPs were asked to decide whether to back him.
Yes, some would. But despite the vocal minority of supporters, my conversations suggest that the raw numbers prepared to side with Boris Johnson against a Tory-dominated committee accusing him of deliberately misleading the Commons in pitiless detail may not have gone well for the former PM.
In the event he lost the vote and faced 10 or more days of suspension, he would also face the prospect of a by-election in his Uxbridge constituency.
Its 7,210 majority is well within the margin that could be swept away, which would be a decisively mortifying end to his political career.
Even if he won that vote, what would it be for?
There is no conceivable path to him becoming leader again.
