Don’t kid yourselves, progressives – Jo Swinson is so bad she’s helping build a Tory majority

All of this is the consequence of the Lib Dem leader’s catastrophic decision to give Boris Johnson his early general election

As they say, this wasn’t in the script. Jo Swinson wanted three big things out of this election: Stop Brexit; Bin Boris; get the balance of power for the Lib Dems. It’s not turning out quite like that, is it Jo?

After a disastrous campaign in an unnecessary winter election it looks rather more likely that her own party will want to bin Swinson. If the polls are right, the Lib Dems will now win few extra seats (YouGov suggests a net gain of one); Brexit will happen; and Boris will be set for a full term or two of his unique style of national leadership. If he makes it to 2024 and then to 2029 he will be in the Thatcher-Blair league. Most young people in this country will have lived most of their adult lives under Tory or Tory-led governments. Ms Swinson will be a backbencher, unless the SNP ousts her. And to think only a few short weeks ago she fancied she could be PM.

Get used to it. In a little over a week’s time, Britain will have a hardline Brexit Conservative government led by a man with the morals of an alley cat, backed by a big majority of MPs who have sworn a personal oath of fealty to him and his skimpy manifesto. What a Christmas party they’re going to have at Chequers!

When he was eight years old, the fable goes, Boris Johnson declared his ambition to be “king of the world”. He won’t be far off it as he prepares for a five-year term in which he can wreak revenge on the EU, the courts, the Commons, the BBC, Channel 4 and anyone else. Be afraid.

Tactical voting, the Remain alliance, the youthquake, the remaining TV debates, Andrew Neil, Jeremy Corbyn’s superb campaigning skills, Lord Buckethead, Nigel Farage, the Russians – forget them. Even the brilliant Nicola Sturgeon, penned in up in Scotland.

Progressives: do not delude yourself; do not entertain false hope. There are plenty of people out there nasty enough to vote Tory, and mean it. Even if you don’t know any.

Nothing on earth can save you. A 10 point lead, or more, for the Tories over Labour will give Johnson a bumper result and quite possibly a landslide. Maybe Chuka will get in, maybe Raab will lose his seat. Maybe Labour will hold Kensington. It won’t matter.

Get ready then for the elective dictatorship and the possibility of a no-deal Brexit by the end of 2020. The nightmare is about to go into full horror mode.

It is not too early to start apportioning blame for this show. This brings us back to the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, who has more to answer for than most.

It was she, let us not forget, who granted Boris Johnson his early election during some parliamentary manoeuvrings in late October. She agreed to support the SNP in going for an early election. Labour, fearful of looking fearful, then gave in too. Johnson and Dominic Cummings got their way. And they knew exactly what to do.

It need not have happened. Johnson was caged in the last parliament, and the possibility of a second referendum was live as the months dragged on. He was exactly where the opposition parties wanted him. No-deal Brexit was not allowed. Swinson held the balance of power, with others.

But Swinson released the blond beast from the cage. She pleaded there was no majority for a final say referendum in the Commons. Maybe, but there was a lot more support for it in the old Commons than in the next one, and the pressure was there to force it.

The Lib Dem leader said the best way to stop Brexit was to elect enough members of her party to revoke Article 50. She was warned at conference that that sounded extreme and undemocratic, and so it has been proved. It has it has annoyed voters on all sides.

Swinson thought an early election would strengthen the Remain alliance, yet the SNP and Labour spurned the overtures. The Leave alliance is firmer.

Swinson told us she stood ready to be prime minister, but the voters have not warmed to her the more they see of her. Unlike Nick Clegg, Paddy Ashdown and David Steel in their day, the extra media exposure hasn’t helped her party. It is going backwards in the polls.

Mercifully, the big talk has stopped and Swinson has stopped trying to throw her weight around, but it is all a bit late. An electoral humiliation approaches.

She will get more votes than Tim Farron in 2017, but few more MPs. The defectors from Labour and the Conservatives will probably fail. She, her party, and her supporters face a long depressing era of utter irrelevance. It may be some consolation to her that Labour will be in much the same position, but not much.

None of this needed to happen. All of the consequence of her catastrophic decision to give Johnson his early general election were foreseen. The risk he’d actually win and “get Brexit done” was also obvious, with or without Farage’s help. Swinson owns her campaigning failures and huge political errors of judgement. Soon she will own Brexit too. Not in the script.