In my column this week, I argued that Boris Johnson has to show that there’s still a point to the Tory party and that the best way to do so is by proving that he’s an authentic populist, not just another phony. Telegraph readers were quick to make their thoughts clear in what has been a fast-moving week. Here, I respond to a few of them.

John Eley argues that the PM is an “imposter. He may have been viewed as a showman, but we thought he delivered results.” 

This perfectly sums up the nuances of Johnson’s squandered relationship with the public. It is not so much that he has lost the “trust” of the people; voters were never so foolish as to invest such a naive kind of faith in him. Rather it may no longer be possible for his backers to suspend their disbelief about him. 

Johnson’s support from the public derives from their simple calculation that although he may be a self-serving rascal, he has proved himself willing to take a gamble on politically positioning himself outside of the metro-elite establishment. Thus they reasoned that he might be able to get some things done on the people’s behalf. 

In recent weeks, they have had to confront the reality that he may be, to the core, both incapable and a phony.  

Partygate is such a momentous “peak behind the stage curtain”, as I put it in my piece this week, because it met with an audience that was already increasingly sceptical. His backers have been whiffing a certain plastic fakeness in the Johnson act for some time.

As John Clifton says, net zero green policies “that are ill-considered, expensive…[ and were not] spelled-out until after Boris Johnson got elected” have prompted many to reassess whether his populism is authentic. 

David Lauder contests that an “authentic populist” is a “complete oxymoron”, arguing that “to be a populist you need to promise all things to all people knowing that they can never be delivered. It’s the opposite of conviction politics.”

I have to disagree. Populists, in my view, can be authentic if they truly believe in the basic logic of populism: the need to give a voice to ordinary people against established elite interests in order for society to function sustainably. Boris Johnson’s position right now is so dangerous because people no longer think he is genuinely for the people. They are writing him off as someone whom they thought would challenge the corrupted status quo, but in truth embodies it.

The question is whether there is any way back for the Prime Minister as far as the public is concerned. 

Wim Kotze, who calls Johnson a “fraud”, does not think so. “Compulsive lack of integrity cannot be fixed and even from a pragmatic point of view, carries many risks going forward.” Perhaps this is correct, and the PM will never change. 

However, as I lay out in my column, I still feel that he could theoretically redeem himself. He must now battle to prove that he is a man of the people dedicated to ruling on the voters’ behalf, rather than a Tory stage toff ruling over them.

Sherelle will respond to the best comments and letters from this week’s column in our weekly Write to Reply series. Leave a comment below or email dtletters@telegraph.co.uk for the chance to have yours included