IT was the Scottish comedian Mark Nelson who first posed the possibility that it was Boris Johnson and not a laboratory in Wuhan, or an infected bat, that was the first traceable source of Covid.

The theory has gained more credence this week when the former prime minister was accused of further breaches of ­pandemic ­restrictions. How many more times can this superannuated sleazeball evade the kind of justice that has been meted out on people for far lesser transgressions of ­lockdown laws?

Johnson, who has already been fined once for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules, now faces fresh allegations that he broke stringent regulations laid out by his own government during the height of the pandemic.

Thames Valley Police, the force ­responsible for Chequers – the prime ­minister’s 16th-century manor house ­residency in Buckinghamshire – are ­investigating “potential breaches” of health protection regulations during June 2020 and May 2021 at the estate.

Johnson had been referred to the police by the Cabinet Office who were reviewing documents in advance of the long-awaited Covid public enquiry.

Resorting to type, Johnson blamed ­everyone but himself. According to the Daily Mail, a title still in awe of the ­deposed prime minister, Johnson has threatened to sue the government for ­releasing documents to the police without his permission.

Just when Johnson stopped digging, his sister Rachel picked up the spade on his behalf. She assured Ben Kentish on his LBC show, that “all the rules had been followed” when she was at Chequers, thus inadvertently admitting that she had participated in a breach of guidelines, which at the time discouraged family households from mixing.

We know from lived experience that the Conservatives are a sleight-of-hand ­political party, arguing for law and order but only for others never themselves.

Last week, as Johnson tried to ­wriggle off the hook, demanding delays, ­threatening to sue the Government and refusing to grant an enquiry’s unfettered access to his WhatsApp communications, we saw yet more evidence of his evasiveness and the calculated way he uses bungling ­ineptitude as a shield.

One of the long-awaited parts of the enquiry into Johnson’s Covid days is the so-called Abba party, a social event ­organised by his wife and reputedly held in a private apartment above No 11 Downing Street, in defiance of the strict guidelines that Johnson’s administration had enacted.

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The internet has been awash with corny Abba jokes and prime among them is the entirely reasonable claim that the Abba party will be Boris ­Johnson’s ­Waterloo. How can his battered ­ reputation survive such a tacky retreat from ­responsibility?

We all remember Covid, some will ­never stop remembering it. My own ­family was relatively fortunate, a short dose of ­infection, a brutal introduction to home-schooling and countless Zoom meetings to keep the illusion of normality at work.

As a family, we were thankfully ­protected from the harshest experiences. We did not suffer a family death, we did not have to stand outside an ­emotionally cold window trying to communicate with a loved one, we did not have to see our dearest wired up to oxygen masks in a crowded hospital or watch as exhausted NHS staff smiled through their own ­personal hell.

We did not have to organise ­funerals when only a few relatives could attend, separated by face masks, isolated ­seating and a ban on comforting hugs. We ­experienced none of that, but enough ­people did, they have not forgotten, and they have every right to want to see Boris Johnson pay a heavy price for the callous way he has behaved.

Sadly, such is the pitiful state of ­British politics, I suspect Johnson won’t pay a price commensurate with his ­behaviour. I predict that whilst Harriet Harman’s ­inquiry will not be good news for ­Johnson, there will be enough room for him to ­wriggle away from responsibility.

Such is Johnson’s shameless ego, he will probably use the final document to ­underscore a flabby self-congratulatory chapter in one of the books he has been commissioned to write. It may even be the chapter that leads into his heroics in Ukraine, where he has toured the ­theatre of war more promiscuously than any ­comparable leader. Why else would ­Johnson persist in visiting a warzone dressed like a silent movie tramp, unless there was the remote off-chance he could write about it and lay to claim entirely ­unmerited international status?

Viewed from Scotland, it is virtually impossible not to compare Johnson’s conduct to the price that the former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier, inset, has paid for her unconscionable breach of Covid guidelines.

Ferrier travelled the length of the ­country by public transport whilst ­knowingly infected. It was an astonishing choice in such tensely emotional times. Last week, she lost her appeal against a proposed 30-day ban from the House of Commons over Covid rule breaches, which paves the way for a by-election in the MP’s Scottish constituency. ­Ironically, she was saved by Westminster’s arcane rules when a vote confirming her suspension did not attract enough sitting MPs.

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If the suspension does eventually take place and a recall petition succeeds, it will be a by-election like no other in ­Scotland, testing the SNP at their ­weakest moment and inviting Labour to regain a symbolically important seat in their old heartlands.

I find it hard to understand and ­sympathise with Ferrier’s actions – whether it was misplaced work ethic, then the desire to get home when ill, or even a ­misunderstanding of the seriousness of her actions, all offered in mitigation.

But as a sitting MP, she should have been wise to public sentiment, much more attuned to the hour-by-hour shifts in the pandemic and resisted any ­pressure to travel, even if public transport was still functioning.

Equally, it is possible to adopt a very different position. Why has such a ­comparatively obscure and low-profile MP been punished so strictly, when more powerful characters at the very heart of Westminster have been allowed the ­privilege of nine entitled lives?

Boris Johnson no longer occupies ­centre stage, but the masquerade of Tory double standards continues ­uninterrupted. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced last week that Suella Braverman’s handling of a speeding ­offence did not breach ministerial rules and so would not be investigated.

The Home Secretary was caught speeding last year and asked officials for advice on arranging a private course on road conduct. Opposition parties had called for an inquiry into whether she had breached ministerial but after discussion with his “ethics adviser”, Sunak said he thought an investigation was not necessary.

I will leave the reader to reflect on the crushing irony of a ­Conservative leader having access to an ethics ­adviser, one who has been deployed to ­discuss ­speeding ­offences rather than the ­morality of ­sending asylum seekers to Rwanda. The outcome was convenient all round, suiting both the Prime ­Minister and Braverman, the decision prevents the elongation of scandal, and stops the vapid yet cunning Braverman from retreating to the back benches to broodily scheme to challenge Sunak’s leadership.

They are a vile and self-serving lot backed inevitably by big wealth, most ­recently a donation of £5 million from the ­Egyptian ­businessman Mohamed ­Mansour, who, defying the laws of ­capitalism, will try to convince sceptics that he expects no ­return on investment.

If you, or indeed the election ­commission, believes that, then I have an extremely rare and unreleased Beatles album to sell you.