Maybe Boris Johnson hoped the apology, however partial, and the promise of investigation, however limited, would prove enough for now?

Maybe he assumed the country would focus on Omicron – the approaching COVID wave and his fresh restrictions for England – rather than questions of whether Downing Street staff held a party on 18 December in breach of lockdown rules.

But a bruised and unhappy Tory party is suggesting otherwise – with MPs suggesting the public won’t follow rules, while others promise rebellion.

Meanwhile it appeared that the departure of a senior aide, Allegra Stratton, may have made the PM’s position worse.

Mr Johnson paid tribute to her in his press conference, perhaps for good tactical reasons. The well-connected former journalist once denied there was infighting in Number 10 by briefing it was a “a nest of singing birds” – he could do with keeping her onside.

This time last year Ms Stratton wanted nothing more than to be the most famous face in this government, as press secretary she was to be the public face of Mr Johnson’s premiership in a new role defending him on TV on a daily basis.

Today the aide to the PM achieved that aim, becoming the emblem of Boris Johnson’s administration, on every TV bulletin and on almost every front page – because of frivolous remarks apparently making light of a party in Downing Street.

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She resigned hours later, choosing to share her distress in front of the TV cameras in good time for the bulletins she once worked on.

Her farewell statement cantered through the importance of the COP climate change summit – the focus of her last role in government – and claimed she always did her utmost.

But Ms Stratton skirted round the central question of whether a party took place, and in doing so raised the pressure on Mr Johnson.

Ms Stratton could easily have put to rest the question of the 18 December 2020 Christmas party by repeating the prime minister’s comments that she was assured no such gathering took place.

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Alternatively she could have said she and her colleagues were discussing a fictional event and did not reflect a real gathering. Or she could have said she wasn’t there and didn’t know – as she did on the leaked footage.

Similarly, she could equally have declined to issue a statement at all. She appears unable to have been able to do any of these things.

The absence of any denial about the party loomed so large as to overshadow the assessment of her period in government. Was this a deliberate omission? Was it accidental?

Instead, she gave an address on the steps of her house which was silent on the critical issue of the day. Ms Stratton, a former Times, Guardian, ITV and BBC journalist, has many contacts in the media all of whom will want her to talk more about the “nest of singing birds”.

Did the prime minister’s kind words at the podium today do enough to keep her quiet about exactly what happened behind the Number 10 door?

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