SCOTTISH Conservatives have long known about the “Boris factor”, that feeling of distrust, dislike even, that comes over voters when the Prime Minister’s name is mentioned on the doorstep.

Judging by the general reaction to Saturday’s cancellation of Christmas, Scotland is no longer alone in being scunnered by Mr Johnson. If there had been a “mood-o-meter” in operation, a machine to gauge shock and anger at the last minute imposition of a lockdown on London and the South East, the needle would have swung beyond the scale.

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Many a Christmas plan was shredded by the tea-time announcement in London, followed by similar from Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. The Sunday shows, which had been planning to take a look at the effects of a no-deal Brexit, duly swung into reverse. Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, touted as the main guest on Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday earlier in the day, was stood down in favour of Matt Hancock, England’s Health Secretary.

Given the alarming news about the Covid-19 variation, it might have been expected that the PM himself would appear. After all, he did so before the start of the second wave and subsequent lockdown. But it was not to be, and Mr Hancock was sent out instead to act as a lightning conductor for the palpable anger and despondency in the air.

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The Health Secretary was already the target of criticism in the Sunday Telegraph, with Sir Charles Walker, vice-chair of the 1922 committee of backbench Conservative MPs, calling on him to resign.

But it is becoming clear that criticism of Mr Johnson’s Ministers is turning into grumbling about the PM himself, both within his party and in the wider UK. The problems are as much personal as political.

First, the political. Mr Johnson’s success at the last General election was built in large part on his ability to take previously Labour seats in England and make them Tory. The red wall became the new blue frontier, courtesy of Brexit.

But many of those seats are in areas that have been under severe Covid restrictions for months, with businesses taking a hammering, jobs being lost, and people in general feeling the strain.

The recent easing of the rules in the run-up to Christmas was greeted as a desperately needed boost. It now looks like a temporary reprieve. If, as is feared, the new variant spreads north, more areas will fall under the new (in England) tier four restrictions, and could stay there till the vaccination drive is in full swing. As we know from economic crises in the past, a job lost outside London and the South East is far more difficult to replace.

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More widely, some Conservative MPs are beginning to wonder whether the PM really “gets” business. They fear his response to firms’ concerns about a no deal Brexit – “**** business” he is reported to have said – speaks to a deeper ignorance or unwillingness to engage. Mr Johnson has never run a small business. He does not speak the language of the SME sector from which his party has traditionally derived support. It is one thing to write a column about creating jobs and generating wealth, and quite another to achieve them. When he speaks about “levelling up” previously left behind areas, people naturally question whether he has any idea how to do this.

Adding to Mr Johnson’s political problems are concerns about his personal style. The Christmas debacle is but the latest example of the way his dithering is followed by bluster and then retreat. Mr Hancock told the Commons about the new variant last Monday. The editors of the British Medical Journal and the Health Service Journal warned against easing restrictions over Christmas, telling the PM it would cost lives. Labour called for a rethink of Christmas plans.

Yet come Wednesday and Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Johnson mocked Labour concerns and said it would be “frankly inhuman” to backtrack. Come Saturday afternoon he was announcing just that. His excuse for the U-turn, that when the science changes he adapts course, has been used too often. The whole point about listening to the science is that it is supposed to keep government ahead of the curve.

Mr Johnson has developed a pattern of raising hopes only to dash them. Remember the “world beating” test and trace system and the defeat of the virus by Christmas? England is now joining Scotland and the rest of the UK in seeing the drawbacks of such bluster. What might be acceptable in a candidate can be a liability in office. In desperately trying to please and be liked, Mr Johnson is having the opposite effect.

Yet what does this matter in the short term? The Scottish Conservatives are already bracing themselves for the Boris effect in next year’s Scottish Parliament elections. They are used to placing him on the sidelines.

The party outwith Scotland will have trouble doing the same in 2024, so closely was he associated with victory at the last General Election.

In the meantime, the successful roll out of a vaccine could lead to the Johnson slate being wiped clean. The more this crisis continues, the more unlikely that seems. The fall-out from a no deal Brexit will only add to his woes in the New Year.

Mr Johnson can change his advisers and Ministers; he can even, as he has shown, alter direction with dizzying speed. What he cannot change is his character, and the perception that he is losing control.

Our columns are a platform for writers to express their opinions. They do not necessarily represent the views of The Herald.