Now Phillip Schofield is attacking his lockdown exit plan on This Morning, Boris Johnson really is in trouble

The verdict of Middle England's favourite mid-morning TV presenter could not have been more damning had it been delivered at the dispatch box by the leader of the opposition

I must admit that, charming as he is, I’d never previously looked on the television personality Phillip Schofield as some sort of destructive political force. Advertising car insurance through the medium of fluffy kittens, yes. Joshing gently with a shaking of heads with Holly Willoughby on This Morning about the latest adultery-based plot twist on Emmerdale, for sure.

But eviscerating the reputation of a serving prime minister? Well, not so much.

Yet, with the caption “CONFUSED ABOUT LOCK DOWN? SO ARE WE” on screen, Schofield delivered a series of devastating attacks on Boris Johnson’s “road map” for getting out of lockdown. And each criticism carried all the more menace for being expressed in usual, conversational tones.

He and his co-host gave expression to the authentic voice of Everywoman and Everyman. “The problem is, I think we’re all just about holding on, but when there’s this level of confusion, it sort of knocks you back...” Willoughby began. “That’s the problem, we now lack clarity,” Schofield replied, in this deadly duet of character assassination.

His verdict could not have been more damning had it been delivered at the dispatch box by the leader of the opposition: “Utterly astonishing... If this was in a farce on the telly, I’d go ‘That’s a bit far-fetched’.”

Utterly astonishing, too is the way that Johnson seems to be losing what you might think of as these icons of mid-morning, middle class, middle-brow Middle England – the centre ground of Britain in 2020.

After all, Piers Morgan has already deserted Johnson, telling his vast (for the time of day) audience on Good Morning Britain that the prime minister’s plan is “disgraceful”, a charge made even more damaging by the intervention of his telly doc Hilary Jones, who called it “illogical”. Goodness, even the Daily Mail – THE DAILY MAIL! – gave Morgan a column to pile ridicule upon the Tory leader, previously treated as a demigod: “Boris Johnson likes to think he is Churchill reincarnated, but in our darkest hour, he has stood for confusion, weakness, dithering and incompetence. And his shameful mixed messages will cost many more lives”.

We now live in a political universe where the Mail and Telegraph titles are even starting to fraternise with Keir Starmer and his team.

Johnson does seem to losing some of his core support rather rapidly, on top of cabinet members who feel ignored and backbenchers terrified of the economic costs of the lockdown. Normally apolitical Middle England seems to be defecting under the stress of this existential crisis.

Perhaps now is the moment when Alan Titchmarsh will decide he has wrestled with his conscience long enough and announce a leadership challenge, or Prue Leith will call for an emergency meeting of the 1922 Committee to deal with the vacuum of leadership that lies at the heart of government. I’ve heard rumours that the stars of Strictly are getting very disillusioned by the lack of substance behind the government’s “levelling up” agenda.