RESOLVE and resilience are two admirable and essential qualities in any leader. The ability to suffer bruising political blows and battle on to victory regardless. But perhaps more admirable and essential are the qualities of integrity and sound judgement.

While there will be some, possibly many people, who believe what really matters is that their prime minister is not a saint but someone who, despite their sins, delivers and makes the country a better place.

Yesterday, Boris Johnson – to no one’s great surprise – insisted the torrent of criticism coming his way would not cause him to have a “psychological transformation” and that the endless churn of allegations against him was “driving people nuts”.

The PM suggested it was the public’s right to “continue to beat me up” because they had no one else to complain to. And when asked what lessons he would take from this week’s two crushing by-election results, it was interesting to hear him fail to answer, arguing instead how voters were “absolutely fed up hearing about things I stuffed up…when they want to hear what is this guy doing”.

However, the problem for any leader is they cannot lead alone. They need people around them to believe in them, their style of leadership and their policies.

And this is Johnson’s core problem. I’ve lost count how many times a minister has gone on the airwaves to defend a particular policy only for the PM to reverse it hours later, leaving the minister looking like a complete idiot.

Post the polls in Yorkshire and Devon, Johnson critics on the backbenches are now manoeuvring to get themselves on the executive of the Conservatives’ 1922 committee, so they can change the party rules to hold another confidence vote and boot the PM out. But this could take weeks. It’s the frontbench where the immediate focus should be.

One thing noticeable following Tiverton and Wakefield was the initial silence from Cabinet colleagues. Apart from Dominic Raab, Johnson’s deputy, and yesterday Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, the lack of public Cabinet support for their embattled leader has been striking.

With the PM away on diplomatic duty, rumours will swirl around Westminster. One Cabinet minister supposedly claimed Oliver Dowden had resigned as party Chairman to “run Rishi’s campaign”. Despite his own travails, the Chancellor still wants to move next door.

Although Johnson would like us to ignore personality and focus on policy, one informs the other. The PM’s character flaws will forever make headlines and corrode confidence in the Conservative message.

One ex-leader, Lord Hague warned his party under Johnson was “potentially heading towards disaster” as voters and activists suffered a “tremendous loss of faith” in him.

While another, Lord Howard - who famously sacked Johnson from a shadow ministerial position after he denied an alleged affair with a female journalist - claimed the party and country would be better off under new leadership, urging Cabinet members to “very carefully consider their positions”.

But, of course, the person who was perhaps cheering the loudest at the Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton results was not Keir Starmer or Ed Davey but Ian Blackford.

The momentum of criticism that had been building over the Patrick Grady row suddenly halted as the media focused on another story.

Yet this does not mean the SNP’s leader at Westminster has escaped more bruising political punches on the subject.

One of the most remarkable aspects of the Grady saga was how someone surreptitiously recorded a private Nationalist meeting and then leaked the contents to the Press to damage the leadership. Which suggests the SNP family at Westminster is not a happy one.

Indeed, one insider observed: “The mood has been unpleasant for months, years really. It's a vicious environment.”

After Westminster’s independent complaints panel upheld the complaint against 42-year-old Grady for, in 2016, making an “unwanted sexual advance” towards a party worker - 19 at the time - while “under the influence of alcohol,” Blackford in the recording expressed “full support” for his parliamentary colleague even though in 2017 he promised the SNP group would implement a “zero-tolerance” approach to unacceptable behaviour.

A year later, when the SNP Westminster chief learned of the Grady allegation, he apparently invited the victim into his office where, to the young man’s surprise, Grady joined the meeting, making a tearful apology.

But the party worker believed it had been an “ambush,” that he had bounced into accepting the MP’s apology. Consequently, the SNP leadership regarded the matter closed and Grady continued happily as Chief Whip. Until, that is, March 2021 when the Herald disclosed the backbencher had been accused of sexual harassment.

However, once the negative fall-out was unleashed after the complaint against Grady was upheld, Blackford dramatically changed tack and publicly cast his colleague adrift, telling STV it was up to the Glasgow North MP to “reflect on his behaviour and where he goes from that”.

This seemed like the classic political technique of suggesting someone should resign without explicitly saying so.

Nicola Sturgeon, despite her anger, expressed continuing confidence in the party’s Westminster leader but made clear the support for Grady in the absence of any for the distraught victim was “utterly unacceptable”.

Pressed by reporters, the FM said it was important “we don’t defend things that shouldn’t be defended”.

Blackford has apologised, initiated a review and promised to “consider all lessons that must be learned to make sure staff have full confidence they will receive the support they need”.

However, there are now question-marks over the longevity of the Highland MP in his Commons leadership role.

The prospect of the summer recess, when the political dialogue quietens, is always a tempting time to chop and change in the hope of minimal impact. Autumn party conferences are then often used as launch-pads for new incumbents.

So, it’s intriguing to note that at Westminster the fate of two party leaders could now rest in the hands of those troubled colleagues closest to them. The question is whose will be sealed first: Johnson’s or Blackford’s?