CAST your mind back a few weeks ago to when the main concern of the day wasn’t the bombing of a maternity hospital, the murder of people cowering in their basements, or the imminent threat of nuclear war, but whether Boris Johnson had broken lockdown rules at Downing Street parties.

Mr Johnson faced calls from opposition parties and Tory MPs to stand down as the partygate revelations dominated newspaper front pages and led TV news bulletins every day.

Former Conservative Brexit secretary David Davis turned to the history books to deliver his stinging words: “I will remind him of a quotation altogether too familiar to him, of Leo Amery to Neville Chamberlain: ‘You have sat there too long for all the good you have done. In the name of God, go.’”

Mr Davis’s order was issued in mid-January, yet it now feels like a lifetime ago.

As Russia invaded Ukraine, the calls for the Prime Minister’s resignation suddenly stopped as the world tilted on a dangerous new angle and MPs opted to keep quiet over partygate in the face of the frightening global shift.

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As the war, now into its third week, continued, the demands for the PM to go showed no signs of resurfacing despite fierce criticism of his response to the plight of Ukrainian refugees.

Unlike EU27 countries, which are operating an open-door policy to refugees from Ukraine, the UK Government decided upon highly restrictive measures, resulting in pathetically low numbers of desperate people being helped. 

The Herald:

Boris Johnson's government response to Ukrainian refugees has come under attack from Tory and opposition MPs.

Under the policy, the only way Ukrainians fleeing the war have been allowed to come to Britain is if they have family already living here, and to get a visa.

To get a visa, applicants had to have their fingerprints and photographs taken at one of the visa centres in Europe.

The Government has insisted these checks were needed to make sure that no Russian infiltrator can gain access to UK shores and pose a security risk. Not surprisingly, given the many thousands of people trying to reach family in the UK, the system quickly became overwhelmed, resulting in traumatised people having to wait many hours, often in the Eastern European snow, outside British visas centres overseas to get their applications process.

And, of course, with the men of Ukraine either voluntarily staying or being forced to remain and fight, the vast number of refugees are women, children and elderly people.

READ MORE: Emmanuel Macron: UK not living up to "grand statements" on Ukraine’s refugees

Charities, churches, concerned citizens, and politicians across the political divide, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, asked simply: “Would it not be better to do checks once these vulnerable refugees are safe in the UK with their loved ones?”

At PMQs on Wednesday, former Tory Cabinet minister Julian Smith put the matter starkly to a sombre Commons still absorbing the words of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address from the evening before. He stated: “People across the country are genuinely concerned by our response on refugees – by the bureaucracy and the tone of our response … I urge him [the PM] to look again at resetting our policy and taking control of a more humane approach to those women and men fleeing from Ukraine.”

The next day the Home Office announced that from this Tuesday, Ukrainians with passports can apply online for the visa and get the biometric check done once they arrive in Britain.

READ MORE: Brian Taylor: Ukraine...and a moment of anguish in Holyrood that I will never forget

It wasn’t much of a concession and will still severely restrict the number of people the UK is prepared to welcome.

Criticism for the shambles focused on Home Secretary Priti Patel – who was tin-eared enough to accuse Ireland of taking in what she saw as too many refugees and opening the door to them coming into the UK. But Mr Johnson escaped much of the flak. Tragically, the prospect of a protracted war in Ukraine seems to loom.

At Holyrood on Thursday, charities on the ground told of their fears the conflict may last three years and lead to the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War. MSPs heard the UN estimates around seven million people could be internally displaced in Ukraine, and up to 18 million people affected in the country.

As the war intensifies, Mr Johnson will face more pressure in how to keep the UK out of the conflict and its citizens safe, as well greater demands to help the growing number of vulnerable people fleeing Ukraine and seeking a safe haven in Britain.

Amid such challenges, the police investigation into lockdown parties and the publication of the full Sue Gray report are unlikely to return to the front pages in the way they dominated before Russia invaded Ukraine - however damning their findings.

And amid an apparent political consensus that the PM can’t be forced to go during the war, Mr Johnson may well remain in Downing Street to fight the next General Election as he has repeatedly said is his aim. As one well-connected Tory –and no supporter of Mr Johnson – said with a deep sigh: “If the police handed Boris a fixed penalty fine now, it wouldn’t make the slightest bit of difference to his position.”