An unforgettable year in Downing Street
After his general election triumph a year ago this weekend, Boris Johnson must have expected his premiership to be defined by Brexit.
His election slogan of "Get Brexit done" had been resoundingly endorsed by the voters. And didn't he promise an "oven-ready deal" with the European Union?
In his victory speech in Downing Street, the prime minister vowed to use his 80-seat Commons majority - the Tories' biggest since Margaret Thatcher's win in 1987 - to end the wrangling over Brexit. "Let the healing begin," he declared.
But one year on, wrangling over Brexit has never been more frantic and the prime minister has this week warned his EU tormentors and the British public to prepare for no-deal when the transition period ends on 31 December.
And the healing the nation needs most urgently right now is a cure – or at least a reliable antidote – for the deadly coronavirus pandemic that has so far killed more than 62,000 UK citizens in 2020.
Whatever his Brexit legacy, history will record that Boris Johnson was the prime minister who not only had to grapple with the COVID public health crisis but who also came close to dying from the virus himself.
Here are the political highlights of December 2019 to December 2020 and the moments that have defined an astonishing year...
DECEMBER
Dozens of Labour strongholds – including seats that had never returned a Conservative MP - tumbled to the Tories on 12 December, in the third general election in just over four years.
Many were constituencies that voted heavily for Leave in the 2016 referendum and they became known as "Red Wall" seats.
Will these new MPs be what are rather cruelly called in Parliament "one-term wonders"? A recent poll suggested Labour could win back 36 out of 45 "Red Wall" seats, but a report by Labour MPs this week suggested some of the seats "may be lost for good".
JANUARY
After Jeremy Corbyn quit to spend more time on his allotment, Labour's leadership contest began, with three candidates, Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy, eventually battling it out in hustings and TV debates, including one staged by Sky News.
But even on the backbenches, Mr Corbyn has had a torrid year, refusing to apologise for his stance on antisemitism, despite a damning report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. He was suspended from the party, then re-instated, but he still hasn't regained the Labour whip in Parliament.
FEBRUARY
In a Cabinet reshuffle that turned into a Valentine's Day Massacre, Chancellor Sajid Javid was forced out after refusing to agree to a Number 10 power grab led by the prime minister's enforcer, Dominic Cummings.
Mr Javid's replacement was rookie minister Rishi Sunak, just 39 when he was appointed chancellor and soon dubbed "Dishy Rishi" by fans. But he has prospered and is now firm favourite to succeed Mr Johnson as Tory leader.
Civil war broke out in the Home Office too, with top civil servant Sir Philip Rutnam quitting in a row over bullying allegations against the Home Secretary, Priti Patel. Boris Johnson last month cleared Ms Patel, prompting the civil servant who carried out the inquiry, Sir Alex Allan, to resign.
But it was all sweetness and love in the upstairs flat in Downing Street, as Boris Johnson and girlfriend Carrie Symonds announced they were expecting a baby and were engaged.
MARCH
This was the month when COVID exploded on to the political agenda, making media stars – or villains - of top boffins Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance.
The regular three-man Downing Street news conferences were soon known as "Boris and the boffins". But the boffins' downbeat warnings also earned them the title "Glum and Glummer" and both have been called "Dr Doom".
Later in the year, the straight-talking Jonathan Van-Tam, England's deputy chief medical officer, became a cult figure, with colourful metaphors about trains arriving at a station and penalty shoot-outs and his most memorable phrase: "Don't tear the pants out of it."
Mr Sunak delivered his first budget just weeks after his appointment and the prime minister gave a bleak TV address announcing a national lockdown. Days later, Mr Johnson revealed he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was self-isolating.
Scotland's former First Minister Alex Salmond was cleared of sex charges, triggering a rancorous cover-up row which has split the Scottish National Party and left Nicola Sturgeon facing questions about her role.
APRIL
On Grand National day, Sir Keir Starmer romped home in the Labour leadership race, with Angela Rayner elected deputy leader.
The next day, after looking rough in photos and video messages, the prime minister was admitted to hospital, staying a week, including three nights in intensive care.
It was the most serious illness suffered by a British Prime Minister since Winston Churchill caught pneumonia during the Second World War.
Dominic Raab, as First Secretary of State, deputised for Mr Johnson in the Commons, chairing Cabinet and at Downing Street news conferences and won plaudits from MPs for the calm manner in which he handled his stand-in role.
The PM has since revealed that it was a "50-50 decision" whether to put him on a ventilator at St Thomas’s Hospital, that he needed "litres and litres" of oxygen and doctors prepared to announce his death as he fought COVID.
"I owe my life to our doctors and nurses and the healthcare workers," he said in an interview. "They pulled my chestnuts out of the fire, no question."
"To be honest, the doctors had all sorts of plans for what to do if things went badly wrong. I was not in particularly brilliant shape because the oxygen levels in my blood kept going down."
And having embarked on a rigorous fitness and weight loss regime since his illness, he has blamed being overweight for becoming so seriously ill. "I was too fat!" he has said repeatedly.
The month ended with the prime minister and Ms Symonds announcing the birth of a son, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas, and Mr Johnson claiming the UK is "past the peak" of the coronavirus outbreak but must not risk "a second spike".
MAY
The UK death toll from COVID-19 became the highest in Europe, over 32,000, overtaking Italy. Now it's nearly double that.
The "Stay Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives." slogan was replaced in England with "Stay alert. Control the virus. Save lives". Mr Sunak bowed to pressure to extend the furlough scheme, paying employees 80% of their wages, until October.
Then came the biggest lockdown-busting scandal of the year, when Dominic Cummings, the prime minister's maverick Number 10 adviser who was supposed to be self-isolating after testing positive for COVID, was revealed to have travelled to County Durham and made a day trip during his stay to the market town of Barnard Castle.
In a highly unusual move for an unelected adviser, he was wheeled out to give a news conference in the Downing Street garden, but he was unapologetic and defiant, claiming the drive to Barnard Castle was to test his eyesight.
It was a claim that triggered mockery and derision – and outrage - and propelled "Dom" to the role of the nation's number one pantomime villain.
Mr Johnson refused to sack him and he clung on for a further six months, but his continued presence did huge political damage to the prime minister in his battle for public support for lockdown measures.
JUNE
After the killing of George Floyd by police in the US, Black Lives Matter supporters pulled down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol. Amid demonstrations all over the UK, Boris Johnson was criticised for his response to anti-racism protests.
Non-essential shops were allowed to re-open, prompting huge queues, and face coverings became mandatory on public transport in England.
JULY
Boris Johnson announced further easing of lockdown restrictions and held out the prospect of a "significant return to normality" by Christmas. How did that go?
The former Tory MP for Dover, Charlie Elphicke, was found guilty of sexually assaulting two women, in 2007 and 2016. His wife Natalie, who had succeeded him as the town's MP at the general election, announced that the verdict had ended their marriage.
AUGUST
A Tory MP and former minister, described as a man in his 50s, was arrested on suspicion of raping a Commons researcher and is yet to learn if he will be charged and face prosecution.
The Tory high command has faced criticism from victims' groups for not revealing the identity of the MP. His friends have urged police to "end his torment" and conclude their inquiry.
The Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, faced calls to quit over an exams fiasco following the cancellation of A-levels because of COVID.
Grades were awarded according to teachers' predictions. Many students disputed their assessments and saw their hopes of going to their chosen university dashed.
Sir Ed Davey, a cabinet minister in David Cameron's coalition government, was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats, defeating Layla Moran, who made news by admitting she slapped her then boyfriend at a party conference in 2013.
The vacancy arose because the previous leader, Jo Swinson, lost her seat in the general election, a defeat that was memorably cheered wildly by Nicola Sturgeon on Sky News.
SEPTEMBER
Charlie Elphicke was jailed for two years, the "rule of six" came into force in England and Theresa May attacked the UK Internal Market Bill in the Commons.
"This is a country that upholds the rule of law… The Conservative Party upholds the rule of law," she told MPs, before abstaining rather than voting against the bill.
OCTOBER
In one of Boris Johnson's many U-turns during the year, after rejecting a plea from the Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford to keep paying for £15-a-week food vouchers for some of England's poorest families over the summer, the PM caved in after a public outcry.
He was to make a similar U-turn on support for vulnerable families a few weeks later.
An SNP MP, Margaret Ferrier, was suspended from her party after breaking lockdown rules - infuriating Nicola Sturgeon.
The Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP travelled to London by train from Scotland despite having been tested for COVID. She made a speech in the Commons, before discovering she had tested positive, and then travelled back to Scotland by train. She has still refused to stand down as an MP.
And on Brexit, guess what? The prime minister claimed trade talks with the EU were effectively over and that the UK should get ready for arrangements with the EU to be "more like Australia's" from 1 January 2021. Sound familiar?
NOVEMBER
A month of Cummings and goings. After a vicious power struggle and infighting inside Number 10, with Ms Symonds said to be exerting strong influence on the prime minister, Mr Cummings and his sidekick, director of communications Lee Cain – Muttley to Cummings' Dastardly – were ousted.
A new regime has replaced them. Draining the swamp are former Treasury mandarin Dan Rosenfield, the prime minister's new chief of staff, and former TV journalist Allegra Stratton as spin doctor, fronting White House-style news conferences from January.
...So what's changed from a year ago?
Some of the personnel, obviously: Javid out, Sunak in; Cummings and Cain out, Rosenfield and Stratton in. On Brexit? Very little, as events this week have confirmed.
COVID? Virtually unknown a year ago and to begin with it appeared to be a disease afflicting China and then Italy.
By this time next year Mr Johnson will no doubt have made more changes to the personnel in his cabinet and inside Number 10.
He'll be hoping, too, that Sir Keir Starmer's ascent in the opinion polls stalls and that those Tory MPs who are predicting the prime minister's demise and a move by Mr Sunak from Number 11 to Number 10 Downing Street in the next 12 months are proved wrong.
He'll also be hoping that he really does "get Brexit done" - "oven-ready deal" or no deal.
And, most important, he'll hope that COVID – surely now the defining issue of Mr Johnson's premiership – will have been abated by the vaccines and the nation is back to being fit, healthy and free of the deadly virus.
Credits
Words: Jon Craig, chief political correspondent
Digital production: Lucia Binding
Pictures: Dan Daukes
Picture credits: Getty Images/ PA/ Parliament TV/ FareShare/Mark Waugh