The impending departure of Boris Johnson from Number 10 has come with a high price for some Norfolk MPs. DAN GRIMMER looks at the winners and losers of the week's tumultuous events.
So, the long goodbye has begun. Boris Johnson has announced his resignation as prime minister.
The political landscape has changed - and Norfolk and Waveney’s Conservative MPs are already feeling the repercussions.
So who are the winners and losers?
The Norfolk MP who could take the biggest prize of all is Elizabeth Truss.
The South West Norfolk MP and foreign secretary is among the bookmakers’ favourites to succeed Mr Johnson as Conservative leader - and prime minister.
Ms Truss has yet to throw her hat in the ring, but it is widely expected that she soon will do.
Back in 2019, Ms Truss was widely tipped as a contender in the contest which Mr Johnson ultimately won.
The chief secretary to the Treasury at the time, she decided not to run on that occasion, saying the next prime minister needed to be someone who backed Brexit from the start. She had initially been a Remainer.
Ms Truss has great appeal among the Conservative rank and file, regularly topping or close to the summit in polls of Tory activists run by the ConservativeHome website.
She was on a Foreign Office trip to Indonesia during Mr Johnson’s tumultuous last couple of days and only commented on social media after he announced his resignation.
Ms Truss is the longest serving cabinet member, but there remain question marks about whether she would get enough support from Commons colleagues in the leadership battle.
We may find out very soon.
For some of the other Norfolk MPs here will be a sense of relief that Mr Johnson is going.
Relief that they no longer have to publicly defend the actions of their leader.
North Norfolk MP Duncan Baker spoke more critically of Mr Johnson’s actions than some of his colleagues during controversies, such as Partygate.
He has only been an MP since 2019 - and was given a parliamentary private secretary post in February.
Mr Baker's resignation from that role, on Wednesday, made him the first Norfolk MP to resign from a government post in the attempt to make Mr Johnson go.
His seat was previously a Liberal Democrat one and North Norfolk Council is Lib Dem-controlled, so he will be keen that whoever replaces Mr Johnson has sufficient appeal to keep his constituents voting Tory.
He has only been an MP since 2019 - and was given a parliamentary private secretary post in February.
His resignation, on Wednesday, made him the first Norfolk MP to resign from a government post in the attempt to make Mr Johnson go.
But there is also sadness at Mr Johnson’s exit.
South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon, who backed Mr Johnson throughout the controversies, highlighted how Mr Johnson had delivered the biggest Conservative majority government in more than 30 years.
But even Mr Bacon acknowledged: “It's hard to say that he is not the author of his own misfortune".
For others the sadness will be felt in what they have lost.
Great Yarmouth MP Brandon Lewis had long been one of Mr Johnson’s most loyal supporters.
His resignation from his cabinet role as Northern Ireland secretary on Thursday heaped further pressure on Mr Johnson, after Wednesday’s high profile departures of chancellor Rishi Sinak and health secretary Sajid Javid.
With that cabinet role gone, Mr Lewis has pledged to “continue to work hard for the people of Great Yarmouth as their member of parliament”.
He said: “I am proud of the investment and regeneration we have cultivated in Great Yarmouth, but there is still much more to do.”
Having a cabinet minister as an MP is something of a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, that MP has the ear of the country’s decision-makers, which can assist when it comes to securing investment in their constituencies.
But there is also the perception that it is harder for MPs with such briefs to devote so much time n the area where people voted them in.
Mr Lewis may well return to a cabinet role in the future.
Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman’s resignation from his science minister role will have pained him greatly.
Having served on Theresa May’s policy board, in February 2020, Mr Freeman was one of the early victims of a reshuffle by Mr Johnson - losing his job as transport minister.
But he made his way back into a government role - appointed science and research minister in September last year.
Those are matters dear to Mr Freeman’s heart, he has long promoted Norfolk as a county of science and innovation and made much of its potential through the A11 corridor linking Norwich Research Park to Cambridge.
Back in 2018, amid speculation about then prime minister Mrs May’s future, Mr Freeman said he would have put his name forward to stand as Tory leader “if asked to”.
This time around, he has focused on his desire for a caretaker prime minister to be put in place, rather than Mr Johnson continuing as prime minister until a replacement is chosen, which could take until the autumn.
And what of those who said so little as the resignation letters piled up in Mr Johnson’s in-tray?
Broadland MP Jerome Mayhew, another of the 2019 intake, is not one keen to wash dirty linen in public - or to rebel against the whips.
But he had - just prior to Mr Johnson’s decision to announce his resignation - revealed he had written to Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee, saying he would back action to allow a second vote of confidence.
Norwich North MP Chloe Smith, who was joined by Mr Johnson on the 2019 campaign trail, could be most vulnerable to losing her seat the next time the country goes to the polls.
Having regularly supported Mr Johnson in the past, she was silent until his resignation was announced.
At that point, the she said she had backed him out of respect for her constituents’ decision to choose him as prime minister at the last election.
But she said she had become “deeply and increasingly disappointed” and it was right for him to go.
She remains minister of state for disabled people, work and health.
North West Norfolk MP James Wild called for Mr Johnson to go on Thursday morning.
He has signalled he is keen to talk to new health secretary Stephen Barclay about getting the crumbling Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn built.
Mr Barclay is much more familiar with the issues at the QEH than his predecessors, so Mr Wild will he hoping his long-running campaign will bear fruit.
Which leaves us with Peter Aldous, the MP for Waveney - the region’s MP who has been most willing to condemn Mr Johnson publicly.
He said: "This has been a shameful episode in the history of the Conservative Party.
“I think we need someone who can provide us with a new beginning in very challenging circumstances."
The days and weeks ahead will reveal who that person will be - and whether a Norfolk MP will be moving into 10, Downing Street.
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