Just a few hours ago, the operation to rescue Boris Johnson appeared to be going according to plan. The interim Sue Gray report – or, as she called it, “update” – was unable to give a complete assessment into the partying ways of No 10. There was no clinching condemnatory phrase in the 12-page document. 

In the Commons, Johnson started off well enough, expressing what seemed like genuine remorse about the things that had gone wrong in Downing Street. But after being needled by Keir Starmer, a strain of impetuosity emerged that visibly concerned some backbenchers who had been minded to help him tough things out.

A below-the-belt, barked-out comment about Starmer failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile may have been no more than retaliation for the deeply personal condemnation levelled at Johnson, that “throughout his life, he has damaged everything and everyone along the way”. But this was supposed to be Johnson’s day of contrition and yet he could not bring himself to take an extended pasting with prime ministerial dignity and without firing back.

After Starmer’s attack there followed wounding interventions from Theresa May and Andrew Mitchell on his own side – the latter sitting next to last week’s would-be assassin David Davis – and suddenly the supportive body language on the Tory benches was much reduced. The “partygate” furore is now back on the boil and all those who claimed that the PM can’t change his nature or his ways have seen their arguments strengthened.

He can still tough it out and succeed in rallying his Commons troops and the wider Tory tribe behind him. But to do so he must first properly internalise the criticisms contained within the Gray report instead of acting like a spoiled child who will not be scolded. A meeting with all Tory MPs due this evening will be another crucial event in this, the first of at least two “Gray Days” he must go through before he can move clear of the tentacles of this whole affair.

The most crucial phase of the scandal will surely come when the work of the Metropolitan Police is done. The fact that they are investigating a dozen gatherings – several of which the Prime Minister and/or his wife attended – is chastening.

After Johnson’s comprehensive victory at last week’s PMQs, Starmer won this round in the Commons. A Labour leader who tried to rat on the EU referendum verdict had quite a nerve to accuse the Prime Minister of “fraying the bonds of trust between the Government and the public, eroding our democracy”. But from Starmer’s point of view the needling worked. 

The pressure told. Instead of gently mocking him for his Brexit shenanigans, the Prime Minister snapped back wildly when he was meant to be playing rope-a-dope. He is not yet free of this quagmire.