I do hate saying “I told you so”, but at long last I am being proved right. Boris Johnson has begun his walk of shame. The only person that doesn’t seem to realise it yet is Boris himself.

Hot air can get you a long way, but his balloon is definitely leaking. If the moral fibre of an individual cannot stand scrutiny, there is a limit to how far theatrics, banter and populist slogans will carry them.

Boris Johnson will right now be on his way to Downing Street where a delegation of cabinet members (minus two who have already resigned, but including one of the replacements) and ministers have already gathered to give the Prime Minister the very clear message that he has to go. If his wife, Carrie, has not yet packed their bags she would be well advised to start right now!

I do not think there is a way out of this for the PM which would leave him in office. The only question is whether he would advise the Queen to dissolve Parliament and thus trigger a general election – with a very unpredictable outcome for the Conservatives – or if he would simply tender his resignation as Prime Minister and trigger a leadership election.

My crystal ball doesn’t reach that far, but Johnson is unlikely to survive the day in office, let alone the week. All of us have to deal with our own egos in one way or another, but Boris Johnson, who as a youth dreamed of being ‘King of the World’, seems to have more difficulty than the rest of us. ‘The good of the country’ only means something to him with himself at the helm. That blind spot is not only going to cost him his career as PM but will set the country back at a time when there are big challenges ahead.

Boris seems set to play his last role – this time as Julius Caesar on the Ides of March. I wonder who is playing the part of Brutus?