What on earth was Boris Johnson doing? That’s the question every journalist was asking this week

Along with the arcane details of the rules on MPs’ second jobs, the mind-boggling puzzle which has been bending the brains of journalists and MPs in Westminster this week boils down to a simple question: what on earth did Boris Johnson think he was doing?

This was the week, after all, which he had lined up as his moment to be hailed as the saviour of the world by securing a big deal on climate change at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.

Instead, TV viewers from around the globe were presented with the unedifying spectacle of a British prime minister – in a press conference abruptly truncated after just 22 minutes – being repeatedly asked to apologise for trying to undermine his own country’s democratic procedures and being forced to declare to the millions watching that the UK is not a corrupt country.

Since he became PM, Mr Johnson has never ceased reminding people of the opportunity provided by the hosting of the United Nations conference – following the G7 in Cornwall in June – to put the UK at the heart of global diplomacy and send the “global Britain” message around the world.

Given these high hopes, “We’re not corrupt” can hardly have been the message he wanted to send.

For a politician who loves the chance to shine on a big stage, Mr Johnson seems to have been remarkably insouciant about preparing the ground for his big moment.

Rather than clearing his diary of anything not climate-related and turning a laser focus on the minutiae of the agreement being ground out in Glasgow, he appeared more preoccupied with preserving MPs’ perks in Westminster.

His botched attempt to save Owen Paterson from the inconvenience of a 30-day suspension from the Commons ensured that during the crucial week of climate negotiations, headlines were dominated by sleaze not trees.

Tory MPs insist that they gave whips plenty of warning that they weren’t happy being ordered to back a scheme which seemed so blatantly to be manipulating Westminster’s standards procedures for the benefit of one of their colleagues.

And they are now throwing their hands up in horror at the casual way their leader has revived the spectre of sleaze which inflicted so much harm on the Tories in the 1990s.

Explanations being bandied around privately by Tory MPs are not complimentary towards Johnson. Some say he lost interest in Cop as soon as the razzmatazz left town along with fellow leaders like Joe Biden last week, others that he was too lazy and undisciplined to engage with the details of the negotiation or too complacent in the security of his 80-seat majority to consider the damage he might inflict while trying to help out an old comrade of the Brexit battle.

Others think he is nursing a grudge against the standards commissioner for finding against him in the past and was all too eager to jump on an opportunity to stop her doing it again.

Whatever the truth of the matter, there can be little doubt that the image of prime ministerial disengagement and disarray is not the message Mr Johnson hoped to send the rest of the world this week.

Yours,

Andrew Woodcock

Political editor