12:56

There were further hints that Boris Johnson seems fatigued and drained by the crisis bedevilling his government, after his brother Jo’s resignation and the angry criticism of party grandees in the last 24 hours.

The prime offered a curiously-phrased answer to a question about his own future during a 12-minute long press conference with newspaper reporters in Aberdeenshire, lacking his normally self-confident bounce and bluster.

He was asked by the Guardian when he might resign, given he had won the Tory leadership with a pledge to unite the party and the country, yet had presided over deep splits in both. He answered:

What I said was that we had to deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn. And that’s what we’re going to do.

He was asked again: at what point do you think you might resign?

Er … Well … I think after those three objectives have been accomplished I will … At some point after those three objectives have been accomplished.

He had been up since before dawn, visiting Peterhead fish market soon after 6am after travelling to and from West Yorkshire yesterday. Prime ministers normally insist they have no intention of standing down, swatting aside any doubts about their future. He could claim to be tired.