Today’s bombshell report from the Commons Privileges Committee rules that Boris Johnson repeatedly lied to MPs over Partygate - first revealed by the Mirror.
The shamed ex-Prime Minister would have been suspended from Parliament for 90 days if he was still an MP - triggering a recall petition he probably would have lost.
The devastating verdict from the Committee could - should - hammer the final nail into the coffin of his political career.
Mr Johnson has reinvented himself many times and has often pulled victory from the jaws of defeat.
But here are the reasons why, this time, Mr Johnson is unlikely to return to frontline politics.
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Cheers! The report into former PM's Parytgate denials was excoriating (PA)The Partygate 'lies' report is too scathing
The language used by the Committee is unprecedented in its severity.
In a damning assessment that concludes Johnson deliberately misled MPs when he denied lockdown-busting parties took place in No10, the report warns that “someone who is repeatedly reckless and continues to deny that which is patent is a person whose conduct is sufficient to demonstrate intent”.
The Committee believes Mr Johnson repeatedly and deliberately lied.
A politician condemned by his own peers in such a blunt fashion cannot hope to ever again command the respect of a nation nor of its Parliament.
Tory HQ would block him as a candidate
In 2019, Boris Johnson served a purpose. Tory MPs knew that only this “Heineken politician” could “reach the parts other politicians cannot reach”.
At the time, the Conservative Party had hit rock bottom, coming fifth in that summer’s European elections behind the Greens and receiving just 9% of the vote.
Theresa May’s premiership was doomed and the Tories needed a leader who could smash Parliament’s Brexit deadlock.
They sent for Johnson who, five months later, rewarded their faith and delivered an 80-seat Commons majority.
A lot has happened since December 13, 2019, when Johnson returned to Downing Street with an 80-seat majority (Getty Images)Now, the Tories are in power and Mr Johnson, in his words, Got Brexit Done.
But even if Mr Johnson wanted to seek a seat to stand once again for election for the party he led until last summer, CCHQ bosses - and ultimately, the party leader - would not allow it.
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Any leader would know that letting Mr Johnson stand as a candidate could ultimately topple them because he would always be looking for ways to oust them.
His naked ambition would prevent him from loyally serving from the backbenches.
His relationship with Rishi Sunak, who was once his Chancellor, is now at rock bottom after public slanging match over Mr Johnson's crony honours list.
Mr Sunak is unlikely to want his old boss back, particularly as the ex-PM and his allies blame Mr Sunak for Mr Johnson's downfall.
Even if he did return as an MP, he wouldn’t become Tory leader
Many Conservative MPs are furious at the latest civil war Mr Johnson has caused - and their support is key to becoming party leader.
The rules for choosing a leader of the Conservative Party mean hopefuls must have the backing of a certain number of MPs.
If there are more than two candidates, MPs hold knock-out votes until only two are left.
He's now out of Parliament and his route back is unclear (AFP via Getty Images)The final two candidates are then put to Tory grassroots members who have the final say.
While it is entirely plausible that Mr Johnson might win a vote of activists, MPs would almost certainly ensure he never made it that far.
They have seen what he has done to their party over the past four years.
His popularity has drained away
Touring Britain with Vote Leave in 2016, Mr Johnson received a rapturous welcome where people wanted selfies and flocked to hear him speak.
While it also made him enemies, he was still seen as one of the very few politicians to have “cut through”. Someone voters recognised in the street and who was known by just his Christian name.
He was lauded by Brexiteers during the 2016 Vote Leave campaign (PA)Today, that popularity has gone.
A YouGov poll this week showed 56% of voters do not want him to come back as an MP in the future.
For a man who physically depended on public adulation like the rest of us need oxygen, the rejection of the country is a fatal career wound.
Quite simply, people have had enough of the circus.
Launching other parties doesn't work
There has been much talk - some of it serious - about the potential for Mr Johnson launching his own political vehicle.
Nigel Farage even cheekily offered the former PM a centre-right partnership - though it was unclear if the ex-UKIP leader thought he was doing Johnson a favour or vice versa.
But the reality is that it is very difficult to create a new party in Britain.
Remember the Tiggers - which began life as The Independent Group before becoming The Independent Group for Change and then morphed into Change UK?
Remember them? Most people don't (Wiktor Szymanowicz / Barcroft Images)Few outside Westminster can recall this short-lived party of Remainers forged from the anti-Jeremy Corbyn wing of Labour and the pro-EU rump of Conservatives in February 2019 in a sweaty business room of a hotel near Waterloo Station.
At one point it had 11 MPs - all defectors.
But within 10 months - seven days after they all lost their seats at the December 2019 general election - it was dissolved.
Mr Johnson will be aware of the pitfalls of trying to break the mould of British politics when he is planning his next move.
He wants to make money - and has another baby on the way
Even his allies are open about Eton-educated Johnson’s sense of entitlement.
The man who as a boy wanted to be “World King” has rarely had to fight, graft or toil his way to the top.
Now he has been spectacularly dethroned, brought down by his own lies, broken promises and hubris, he would have to begin at the bottom - somewhere he has never been.
The pair are expecting their third child - Johnson's eighth (PA)Not to mention the fact that he has a pretty sweet deal at the moment.
When he looks around at the chauffeur-driven Range Rover; the round-the-clock armed police guard; the business-class travel; the £250,000-a-pop speeches across the globe; the £3.8million, cash-bought Oxfordshire mansion with moat; and 35-year-old wife number three about to produce his eighth child, the man who turns 59 on Monday might just think he can’t be bothered.
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