Boris Johnson’s downfall is the culmination of months of pressure on his leadership, punctuated by repeated scandals over his lying to the public and Parliament. Reports of sexual groping by deputy chief whip Chris Pincher — and Johnson’s knowledge of his past misconduct, before he appointed him — are just the latest in a stream of stories about the prime minister’s reckless disregard for rules. Such revelations, fueled by the texts and emails of months past, are surprising to no one, least of all to the dozens of previously loyalist Tory ministers who now damn him as unfit for office.

Johnson’s resignation announcement skirted around immediately stepping down as prime minister, but we are now set for an internal Tory contest to replace him. Given the large Conservative majority in the House of Commons — including the dozens of new MPs elected under Johnson’s leadership in the 2019 general election — there is little sign that this will produce much change of political course. Many of the resignations in recent days came from longtime allies of the prime minister, who seek only to position themselves for that contest.

Much media talk around Johnson’s refusal to step down in recent days took up the language of constitutional crisis — and worst of all, the risk that his efforts to stay on risked “embarrassing the Queen.” Broadcaster Andrew Neil, recently scarred by his role in setting up the far-right TV channel GB News, took to Twitter to assert that the comparisons between Johnson and Donald Trump had finally been substantiated. Yet today such claims seem wildly overblown, aimed only at asserting that the doomed Johnson somehow stands outside of the Tory mainstream — a rogue individual, who can now be safely dispensed with.