The first Prime Minister to enjoy a weekly audience with Her Majesty was Winston Churchill.

He, along with each his successors, endured challenges and travails, as is the nature of the role. However, until the current occupant of Number 10 Downing Street, none committed a criminal offence while in office.

The fixed penalty notice issued to Boris Johnson for breaching the Covid regulations his own Government devised, ignited a political storm which saw 148 Conservative MPs vote against him in a vote of no confidence.

This massive tally was short of the 180 votes needed to remove the Prime Minister and, for now at least, Mr Johnson has survived.

However, as a student of political history, Mr Johnson will know only too well that history has not been kind to his forbears when faced with a leadership challenge.

Margaret Thatcher resigned in 1990 after failing to win an outright victory in the first ballot of a leadership challenge.

John Major triggered a contest in 1995 to quell rebellious backbenchers but lost a general election two years later in a landslide.

More latterly, Theresa May survived a vote triggered by Labour but was so damaged that she resigned six months later.

Even in victory Mr Johnson is now heavily wounded. Likely by-election defeats this month in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton will further damage the beleaguered Tory leader.

As the nation suffers its worst cost of living crisis in a generation, we must ask how much longer must the nation endure such ineffectual moral and political leadership?

And more broadly, how long before the Queen is handed a Prime Minister worthy of the office?

Boris Johnson's vote of no confidence victory will be a hollow one, he is on borrowed time - The Yorkshire Post says