British politics appears to have drifted into uncharted waters.

The Prime Minister is abroad throwing his weight into the Ukraine crisis and a cancelled phone conversation with the Russian President Vladimir Putin will likely be revived: A leader getting on with his job, it seems.

But in his brief absence the embers of the damning Sue Gray report are still glowing.

Its eleven pages make it official that the whole episode is the result of "failures of leadership and judgement", that many of the events, these gatherings in Downing St and other offices, "should not have been allowed to take place or should not have been allowed to develop as they did".

The excessive consumption of alcohol was singled out and criticised.

These are extraordinary conclusions for a senior civil servant to publicly draw about a British political leadership and the operation around it.

It's clear that Boris Johnson has every intention of rearranging the way his teams are run from now on. There will be sackings and there will be new appointments. For the Prime Minister and his allies that will be the strategy to keep him in post.

But the Metropolitan Police have yet to deliver their investigation into most of the parties investigated by Sue Gray. At least three of those will be gatherings that are said to have included the Prime Minister himself.

And one of those is a gathering inside his own personal flat above the Downing Street offices. Many say he was there,  Boris Johnson has said he wasn't.

The Police have 500 pages of evidence and 300 photographs they want to work through.

The opposition parties will continue to call for his resignation. Labour leader Keir Starmer said that the Prime Minister "took us all for fools" and that he is "unfit for office" .Some of his own party publicly withdrew their support for the Prime Minister in Parliament on Monday, but only a few.

And as individuals they don't decide. It will take an organised rebellion and there are still few signs that his enemies have the numbers of the conviction.

MPs will consult their constituency members during the week. They'll test the public mood, and they'll talk to each other.

But they'll also be watched closely by the Prime Minister's associates.

Boris Johnson may have thought that apologising for "suggestions that things were going on in Number 10," may be enough.

But a significant, and as yet uncounted number of his 359 MPs, are still making up their minds.

Cover photo:  Boris Johnson boarding an aircraft as he departs to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Britain February 1, 2022. Reuters/Peter Nicholls/Pool