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There is only man who might have cost Boris Johnson his job — and it isn’t Jeremy Corbyn. Luckily for the Prime Minister, Donald Trump was an exemplary guest — for once. With the President

safely out of the country, Boris Johnson has gone back to the comparatively simple task of winning an election in a week’s time. However, he knows better than anyone that he still has a real

fight on his hands. His Australian strategist Isaac Levido has told staff that the final week of the campaign is like the closing statement in a trial. That ominous comparison implies that

Boris Johnson is accused of something and must hope that the jury is feeling lenient. There is at least one sense in which the metaphor is accurate. Boris’s character is on trial because a

large proportion of the electorate finds it hard to trust anything he says. So when he trots out his promises of 50,000 more nurses, 20,000 more police officers, longer sentences for

terrorists, more money for the regions and tax cuts to boot, voters are inclined to be sceptical. The latest wheeze is a “Brexit Budget” in February — a reward for getting Brexit (or his

deal, at any rate) done. But the public finances are not in such good shape that there is room for a giveaway Budget. So the much-vaunted cut in National Insurance will be worth just £85 to

the average taxpayer: barely enough for a duke to take his daughters out for a pizza. It is certainly not enough to compete with the Labour promise to put £7,000 in the pockets of the

average family. Not many voters will believe that either, and Corbyn is probably the most unpopular party leader since records began, but in the privacy of the polling booth they might just

be tempted to hold their noses and take the money. The task for Boris Johnson, then, is to set out a vision of the kind of Britain he wants us to live in. Not just next year, about which he

has said plenty, but in the medium and long term. He should level with the country and be honest enough to admit that the immediate future is not going to be an easy ride. However, once the

threat of socialism in one country has been lifted and Brexit becomes one process among others rather than our sole preoccupation, the economy can revive and prospects will improve. There is

nobody who can conjure up such a vision of prosperity better than Boris Johnson. That is why he should seize every opportunity to communicate with the voters, many of whom have been

distinctly unimpressed by his, or indeed anyone else’s, campaign so far. They want an answer to the question: apart from Brexit, what else might Boris Johnson get done? This weekend the

Prime Minister should make a big speech in a historic place outside London. Manchester’s Free Trade Hall is now a hotel, but it might still do. Wherever it is, he should make sure that it

sounds sincere and authentic. If they are to be memorable, the words must be his own. What is the point of electing the first professional journalist as Prime Minister if he can’t be

bothered to write his own speeches? But one speech is not enough. He must give Andrew Neil that interview. No doubt his lieutenants, including Isaac Levido and Dominic Cummings, are warning

him against it. To do it means taking the risk of a “car crash” such as that suffered by Jeremy Corbyn. Not to do it, however, also carries a risk. Voters may conclude that he is too

cowardly, evasive and risk-averse to be Prime Minister. Worse, some will suspect that he has too much to hide. If Boris Johnson had a reputation for honesty, decency and other old-fashioned

virtues, doing the interview would matter less, perhaps even not at all. But that is not the case, as Boris knows only too well. Therefore he must do it. It should not have escaped his

notice that, despite the mauling he received from Andrew Neil, the Labour leader is still alive and kicking. As the incumbent, of course, the Prime Minister would be playing for even higher

stakes. He took a risk by letting the Nato summit go ahead in mid-campaign. But the truth is that Trump was never going to lose him the election. Only Boris himself can do that.