Boris Johnson article criticising Gordon Brown for refusing to leave Downing St resurfaces

As pressure build on Boris Johnson to do one, to put it politely, an article he wrote calling on Gordon Brown to resign while he was the prime minister has resurfaced with perfect irony.

Writing in May 2010, four days after a general election delivered a hung parliament which saw negotiations eventually lead to a Conservative and Lib Dem coalition, Johnson slammed Brown for keeping things moving in the interim and clinging onto power.

He wrote in the Telegraph: "The whole thing is unbelievable. As I write these words, Gordon Brown is still holed up in Downing Street. He is like some illegal settler in the Sinai desert, lashing himself to the radiator, or like David Brent haunting The Office in that excruciating episode when he refuses to acknowledge that he has been sacked.

"Isn't there someone – the Queen's Private Secretary, the nice policeman on the door of No 10 – whose job it is to tell him that the game is up?"

12 years later, of course, Johnson's ministers are resigning (almost) faster than we can keep up, his former allies are telling him to resign, yet he is still holed up in Downing Street sort of like... I don't know... some illegal settler in the Sinai desert, lashing himself to the radiator.

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Isn't there someone – the Queen's Private Secretary, the nice policeman on the door of No 10 – whose job it is to tell him that the game is up?

We hope so but if not at least people are enjoying his... changing position.

Oh, and for what it's worth - Brown resigned the following day after talks between Labour and the Lib Dems failed. David Cameron then became the prime minister with Lib Dem Nick Clegg as the deputy and the rest - as they say - is history.

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