Having watched Cummings in front of a select committee, I reckon the chance of him making a success of this statement and Q&A, and avoiding further damage to the PM, are vanishingly low. Johnson is mad to allow it.

There& #39;s a real risk he& #39;ll say or do something completely bonkers, and come across angrier and worse than Trump. Even if he resigns, he& #39;s quite likely to wound Johnson badly as he goes. Johnson is mad to allow it.

Is Johnson really such a fool that he trusts Cummings to stick to an agreed line? Can& #39;t he see the danger that Cummings might use this to satisfy some need of his own? He& #39;s putting his premiership in Cummings& #39;s hands today. As I keep saying, he& #39;s mad to allow it.

Finally, unless someone is tasked with physically ejecting Cummings and journalists at a certain time, there must be a risk this event turns out to be not only absurd but uncomfortably long for Johnson.