Another day, another disaster for Boris Johnson’s decaying premiership

Mr Johnson and his team – including his chief adviser Dominic Cummings – have proved utterly ineffective. Just as well when they are trying to rule by decree and suspend democratic government

Boris Johnson speaks to the media during a meeting with US President Donald Trump at UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday (AFP/Getty)

The Supreme Court’s ruling was clear, unanimous and defining, but will also entrench the more vociferous elements in both sides of the Brexit debate in their beliefs. The Leavers will deride it as a dreadful political decision. Remainers will take it as confirmation of Boris Johnson’s perfidy. That much was predictable. What was less expected was the timing. And in a tactical stroke of skill that was only possible because of Boris Johnson’s arrogance, Jeremy Corbyn brought forward his leader’s speech to the Labour conference and found himself able to bask in the humiliation of the prime minister.

Mr Corbyn’s best lines were written for him, in effect, by Lady Hale and the other 10 Supreme Court judges who handed down their compressively damning judgment. Mr Corbyn’s delivery was sometimes only slightly more lyrical than Lady Hale’s but it really didn’t matter. His fan base in Brighton loved it, and the spectacle of an apparently united and joyous Labour Party was complete and perfectly genuine. Mr Johnson reminded the Labour Party, just when they were losing the plot, why they exist. It was quite a gift. They made the most of it.

Not to be outdone or outshone, the speaker of the House of Commons was out of the traps and on College Green in Westminster to recall parliament personally, before Mr Johnson had even emerged from his New York bedchamber. John Bercow declared that MPs will soon be back at work, and rightly so. There will be urgent (and overdue) questions to ministers about Operation Yellowhammer; about the recent talks in Brussels; about the papers, or “non-papers” that have been presented to the European Commission; and much else, including the state of the economy, the collapse of Thomas Cook and the climate emergency.

What’s more, the Commons themselves, and the government, will once again take control of the order of business in the House. Rather than denuding parliament of its remaining powers over the executive, the botched prorogation has made MPs stronger than they have been in hundreds of years. And, of course, a no-deal Brexit before 31 October has already been outlawed. The prorogation was designed to try and prevent what had, ironically, already failed by the time the Supreme Court was able to take an interest in the matter.

The record of the past few months suggests that Boris Johnson and those advising him lack judgement. He has lost every vote he has put to the Commons. He has sacked normally loyal Tory MPs and turned them into resentful rebels. He has lost even Theresa May’s threadbare working majority (which in turn only exists because of the support of the Democratic Unionist Party). The prorogation plan failed on every count. Personal financial scandals continue to dog the prime minister. Apart from an unaffordable combination of tax cuts and spending pledges – promises to bribe the voters with their own money – Mr Johnson has nothing to show for his time in No 10. Well, apart from the acquisition of a photogenic puppy. He has a poll lead over Labour, for now, but that has as much to do with the inadequacies of the current Labour leadership than his own innate charm. Even the Conservative Party deserves better than that; the nation certainly does.

The transcendent, imminent failure of the Johnson government is its failure to deliver Brexit – of any description. Whether the talks on a deal are a sham or sincere, there is as yet little sign of any real progress. The EU Commission and the German, Irish and French governments are polite about the British government’s vague ideas about “alternative arrangements” to the Irish backstop, but that is too often spun into an absurdly optimistic view of likely progress.

Given all that, and given his promise to obey the law: will Boris Johnson request the extension to Article 50 he is legally obliged to undertake? The man who said he who would rather “die in a ditch” than make such a request will be forced to eat his words, but hardly for the first time. He at least has many alibis and others to blame; the Supreme Court and the Commons are making him do it. No one pretends he thinks it is fun (notwithstanding David Cameron’s insistence that Mr Johnson never believed in Brexit in the first place).

On policy failures, for his poor judgment, for acting unlawfully, and on relevant aspects of his private life, Mr Johnson should, in honour, consider his position. The only good reason for him not to quit in disgrace is simply the timing of it. For all his manifest faults, this is not the moment to add another layer of crisis to the problems the nation already faces by trying to find a new prime minister. Until the end of month, at any rate, when no deal has been avoided, there is no better option than to allow Mr Johnson to carry on in his own bumbling way, strictly within the parameters that parliament has set in the legislation banning no-deal Brexit – the Benn Act, as it has come to be known. Now that parliament is back at work, Mr Johnson’s activities can be monitored and questioned at close quarters.

The European Union may be bemused by all of this, and frustrated, but their path is at least clear. An extension to Article 50 is in the long-term interests of the EU, on balance. One that provides the UK with sufficient time to resolve its position is essential, and, thus, they should realistically extend it into the spring. If the nation needs a general election, or more than one and, inevitably, a second referendum to defuse the crisis, then having one in the bleak midwinter doesn’t make such sense. The weather forecasters say that another beast from the east is due. The new deadline for Article 50 has to take account of these real conditions.

Boris Johnson’s premiership already has an air of decay and an atmosphere of incompetence. Supposedly clever and determined, Mr Johnson and his team – including his chief adviser Dominic Cummings – have proved utterly ineffective. Just as well, that, when they are trying to rule by decree and suspending democratic government; but bad news for a country that so desperately needs fresh, energetic leadership.