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"We should get rid of him…. We should own the situation. We are the Tory party. We are not delivering good governance."

That stinging verdict from a Conservative MP does not, at least not yet, seem to represent the consensus among the party's ranks on what to do about the current situation in Downing Street.

But the goodwill-to-all-men moment the Christmas holidays promised is very much over.

The subject of conversation among Tories on Tuesday was not the government's planned menu of policy fare for the week, but whether or not the moment had arrived when Boris Johnson, election-winner, had become Boris Johnson, discredited liability.

Whether or not, in the words of that senior MP, the party should "get rid of him".

The party has not reached that conclusion. The government has an enormous majority. Administrations go through rocky times.

But the latest, and continuing, stream of revelations, has made the question of the prime minister's survival the central one again.

And the frustration burns because the problems seem to many MPs to be self-inflicted.

It's not that Downing Street and Mr Johnson have reacted badly to a chain of events outside their control.

In contrast, it's what happened under the prime minister's roof (and in his garden), and how he has responded to the allegations, that have become a fiasco.

Downing Street has chosen to stay silent rather than offer any new information or clarity since the story blew up again on Monday.

What's Johnson's mood?

There is no confirmation, therefore, of suggestions from insiders that the prime minister's mood is dark, the atmosphere inside the building terrible.

It's said that Mr Johnson is still adamant that he personally did nothing wrong. I'm told discussions in No 10 on Tuesday morning still centred around the argument that the drinks on 20 May 2020, which eyewitnesses say the PM attended, can be justified as an office event to thank staff for their hard work during the pandemic.

Yet in the absence of additional information or clarity from Downing Street, Tory anger has been on the rise, and the sense of panic has been growing.

No one raised the issue at Tuesday's cabinet, which tells you how much of an active forum it really is. But MPs privately have been spitting chips, accusing the PM of dishonesty, of tarring the whole party, of failing to get a grip, of - frankly - some things that are too rude to be written down.

Former ministers have been warning that he has "one last shot" at sorting things out.

Donor's warning

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who of course has his own political need to carve out an identity distinct from No 10, says the PM can't stay if he was at a lockdown party.

And a Tory donor has warned the PM to sort it out or step aside.

On Wednesday, at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson will have to respond to the claims in person.

It's not in his political DNA to admit mistakes unless it is entirely unavoidable. Yet his attempt to point merely to the investigation into gatherings in No 10 is getting less persuasive by the hour.

As Labour and some Conservatives are asking - should the country have to wait for an official inquiry to tell him and us, if he attended a gathering in his own garden?

On previous form, Mr Johnson is unlikely to turn up at the despatch box on Wednesday armed with a mea culpa. There are hints that the PM may give some kind of statement at the beginning of the session - but the full story?

There will rarely have been a moment when the strength of his answers at the weekly bout of PMQs will have mattered as much.