Is Boris Johnson tearing the Tory party apart?

The prime minister is facing an increasing backlash over the sacking of more than 20 of his own MPs, writes Lizzy Buchan

The PM leaves the Houses of Parliament after MPs voted to seize control of the Brexit agenda on Tuesday (EPA)

The image that sticks in the mind from this momentous week was Theresa May, smiling to herself on the back benches.

The notoriously inscrutable ex-prime minister must have felt a sense of vindication as she watched Boris Johnson go off the rails, after he antagonised her for months, insisting that he could deliver Brexit where she had failed.

The idea that the Brexit impasse could be smashed through sheer belief and force of personality must seem a distant memory to Johnson now.