THERE are times, no matter where your loyalties lie, that you have to hold your hands up and admit that something is wrong.

A committee with an in-built Conservative majority studied the evidence and decided Boris Johnson lied to the House of Commons and so also to the British people when he was Prime Minister.

It wasn’t a lie that cost thousands of lives, but it was a lie that tells us so much about the character of Mr Johnson: that he believes he is bigger than any rule, that he believes most things in life are a good laugh as long as he gets his own way, and that he puts himself first at all opportunities.

In 1997, Tony Blair was swept into Downing Street as he promised the British people a new dawn, but such were the huge hopes in him that when he turned out to just be a mortal politician, like all the others, his reputation plummeted. Mr Johnson is in danger of experiencing a similar fall from grace: once his maverick approach made him extremely popular but now after his lies and – the final straw for many members of the public – the crony list of honours, his reputation is sliding.

Rather than attempt to justify his behaviour, or to rail against the “kangaroo court” that found him guilty, Conservative MPs would have been best advised yesterday to turn up and say that for all they admired him, he was wrong and so must face the music.

In the face of a lying Prime Minister, honesty should have been the best policy.

Interestingly, Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt adopted this approach whereas many MPs found reasons not to be in the chamber and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spent the day trying to dodge the question. It was not a good look for the Conservatives and it has ensured that the ghost of Boris will keep haunting them.