According the Newsnight last night and Twitter this morning, Tory MP's were being swamped with angry letters from constituents they don't normally hear from, so was cutting through much more than they had expected. Boris gambled on it being a Westminster issue and apparently got the calculation wrong.
I think you're completely right on this.. the optics were awful. Bryant didn't do himself any favours going full Godwin on R4 this morning.
Edit to add.. the whole process looks iffy to me. In a normal workplace Patterson would be off to a tribunal for constructive dismissal (and probably lose).
According the Newsnight last night and Twitter this morning, Tory MP's were being swamped with angry letters from constituents they don't normally hear from, so was cutting through much more than they had expected. Boris gambled on it being a Westminster issue and apparently got the calculation wrong.