Boris Johnson’s message to his critics - he’s not going anywhere

If anyone was under any illusions the prime minister would go gracefully from office rather than having to be winkled out by force - he was relishing putting them straight today. Rather than seeking an "honourable exit" as former Tory leader Lord Hague has suggested.

He didn’t deny to me on the first day of the G7 summit here in Bavaria, that he is instead, looking ahead to a third term in office, a spell that would take him to the 2030s.

“I want to continue to deliver as much as I can,” he told me.

This is an interesting tactic from a prime minster who has just led his party to two crushing by-election defeats.

It also is likely to put steel in the backbone of backbenchers determined to attempt to change the rules to enable another confidence vote in the PM.

Elections to the back bench committee that oversees that are due to take place in the next few weeks. Boris Johnson was determined not to take the blame for his party’s woes either.

I asked him whether he felt a sense of personal shame at the loss of trust voter’s felt in him.

“No!” he exclaimed with force. “If you look at what the government has done it’s quite exceptional.”

Boris Johnson responds with an emphatic "no" when asked if he feels any shame when some voters say they no longer trust him

What you notice talking to Boris Johnson is his belief that people are fed up hearing about his scandals. That may be true. The problem for the prime minister is he provides so many of them. He failed to clear up another today.

On reports that he wanted to build a treehouse for his son at Chequers at a cost of £150,000.

He said no such structure exists, but no denial that he wanted to build one. Rather awkward for a prime minister claiming he understands the cost of living pressures facing the country.

"There is no such structure," Boris Johnson tells ITV News when asked about claims in The Times that he and Carrie wanted to build their son a £150,000 tree house at Chequers

On Ukraine he was on far happier ground, his driving aim of this G7 summit is a determination to keep the international coalition of support for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy together.

A laudable goal, but it won’t be enough to silence his critics at home.

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