Suspending parliament has been ruled out – so May’s successor will face the exact same choices

A constitutional crisis involving the Queen has – mercifully – been cancelled. What now?

With a week or so to go before he even arrives at the steps of No 10, Boris Johnson has already suffered his first Commons defeat. It was not even close – a majority of 41 was assembled to back Hilary Benn and Alistair Burt’s amendment to the Northern Ireland bill.

The point of this particular piece of political guerrilla warfare was to stop parliament from being suspended by a Johnson government that wanted to force through a no-deal Brexit. The constitutional experts can put their history books back on the shelf. The scheduled constitutional crisis involving the Queen has, mercifully, been cancelled.

Mr Johnson wanted to use the threat of prorogation, which would have allowed him to force through a no-deal Brexit, to make the European Union agree to rewrite the withdrawal agreement. But MPs have broken the lever before he even got his hands on it. A half dozen cabinet ministers, including the chancellor, Philip Hammond, decided to abstain on a three-line whip. Ordinarily, Hammond, David Gauke, Greg Clark et al would be sacked for doing so; these are not ordinary times. Theresa May probably agrees with them.