London Eye: Split on economy behind Rishi Sunak exit

The defence then offered by a minister in parliament was that Boris had indeed been briefed but that he forgot because he had so many other things to remember. Later on, Tuesday Johnson told the BBC that he now remembered being briefed about Pincher's ways and that placing him in charge of party discipline had been a "bad mistake."

Downing Street did not deny Johnson calling the MP "pincher by name, pincher by nature." Nor did Johnson himself when it was put to him later on Tuesday.

Sunak and Javid both sent in their resignations minutes after those remarks from Johnson. But clearly, they did not draft and send out their resignation letters within those few minutes. Both seemed prepared to go anyway, the Pincher affair was only the last precipitating push.

Rishi Sunak said in his resignation letter that he quit because he expects the government to be run "properly, competently and seriously." Which was not a particularly roundabout way of saying that he believes Boris Johnson has been improper, incompetent and frivolous as Prime Minister. That is a view widely shared among people, and more immediately worryingly for the PM, by more and more of his MPs.

But more serious excuses have arisen behind Rishi Sunak's resignation over ways the government should handle the economic mess it is in. Sunak wrote in his resignation letter that his views on how the economy should be handled were "fundamentally too different" from those of the Prime Minister.

The PM had proposed a joint speech with Sunak over new plans from the government, that would have meant Sunak's stamp on a Boris Johnson plan to bring in populist tax cuts that Sunak considered would be too damaging to economic recovery. Sunak maintained that the public was "ready to hear the truth" about the economy. Johnson hit by collapsing support within the party and outside is keen to prop up his collapsing popularity with cuts that would repair some of the damage he has brought upon himself politically.

Johnson is set to tax less and borrow more under new Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, brought over from the education ministry. This has brought some glee to his faithfuls, and some support from them. Boris Johnson is now more free to cut taxes, with Zahavi who is hoped will now be uncritically on board to do this.

Sunak had been resisting public sector pay rises to help manage the inflation on the grounds that it would lead to yet higher inflation. It would also mean yet more borrowing for a government that has already passed all conventionally sensible limits to the extent of borrowing it can weigh itself under.

Much of that borrowing funded the furlough scheme Sunak introduced through the lockdown that made him popular. He had now sought to limit that borrowing, but a beleaguered Johnson is keen to hand out yet more cash by way of counter-inflationary support. The difficulty as recognised both by Sunak and by former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King is that such a move would itself add to inflation.

As he clings on, Johnson's policies are being dictated more by his position on the political brink than by fundamental considerations over the economy.