Yet Johnson has refused to stand down and accused his critics of having a “sanctimonious obsession”.

This is yet another attempt to confuse and deceive. This is not about a few innocent drinks after work. The issue is that Johnson is showing contempt towards voters. He refuses to accept that he has to abide by the same laws as they do.

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British voters and many inside the Conservative Party, who called a confidence vote on his leadership on Monday, have understood that Johnson is arrogant, ill-disciplined and mendacious. Jesse Newton, a former minister and former supporter, has written that Johnson presided over a “culture of casual law breaking” which insulted the electorate and would turn off party volunteers. John Penrose, Johnson’s appointee to a task force fighting corruption, resigned in protest.

Johnson narrowly survived a leadership spill – after 41 per cent of Conservative MPs voted for his removal – because there are no clear alternatives. After 12 years in power and the premature loss of two prime ministers, Theresa May and David Cameron, in the battles over Brexit, the party’s frontbench is short of talent with intellectual depth.

But Britain needs a new leader unsullied by Partygate to deal with challenges such as an economic slowdown, the war in Ukraine and the delayed realisation that Brexit is not nearly as simple and clear-cut as Johnson promised.

Circumstances in Britain are somewhat different, but one clear lesson for Australia from this mess is that all politicians must abide by and be seen to abide by basic rules of good governance, honesty and accountability.

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