Johnson returned to face the music yesterday. But if I thought he was going to show a bit of contrition when he made a statement to the House last night, I could not have been more mistaken. It was Donald Trump on steroids. Many thought he might even resign following his Supreme Court defeat on Tuesday, but he hit back at the opposition without showing a shred of remorse. Yesterday I wrote that he might be getting nervous at what he's unleashed but no, he doubled down.
His performance was the most appalling and disgraceful that I have ever seen by any MP ever, let alone a sitting prime minister. He consistently referred to the EU Withdrawal No 2 Act as the Surrender Act and the Capitulation Act, in spite of repeated pleas by MPs to stop using pejorative language. It was the sort of populist rhetoric to stoke divisions that all too easily spill over into the street. One begins to fear for the future. Those pleading for restraint included women MPs who had received death threats from members of the public who quoted the very words that Johnson used.
What made matters worse is the number of Tory MPs, probably two thirds of the parliamentary party, who laughed and cheered him on. We are heading for Germany 1930. Presumably issuing brown shirts to supporters will come next.
Having been found guilty of unlawfully advising the Monarch to suspend parliament, the PM showed exactly what his girlfriend meant when she told him he doesn't care about anyone or anything except himself. He is a dangerous sociopath who must be removed from office as soon as possible.
Several Labour members said he was unfit to be prime minister, but on last night's performance he wasn't fit to be a human being. Boris Johnson speaks with a plum in his mouth but he is from the sewer and he will end up back there.
At one point, he said he recognised that tensions were running high but didn't seem to realise his own words and tone were whipping them up. I've never liked Johnson, but now I truly hate him like I never hated anyone before.
The parliamentary day began with Cox, the Attorney General and the government's most senior law officer, giving a partisan performance that a bar room thug full of cheap cider would have been proud of. He told MPs that parliament was "dead" and attacked the opposition for not voting for an election. Nothing would be more reckless. He seems to forget that a time bomb is ticking.
Imagine an election, with another hung parliament announced in mid or late October. Who is going to be prime minister? While negotiations take place with the DUP or between Labour and other parties is the clock allowed to run down? We are in chaos now, after an indeterminate result the situation would be even worse - yet this is what Cox and the government want. Stunning.
He knows he can have an election immediately a delay is in place to safeguard food and medicine supplies but amazingly he will not contemplate it.
Gove continued spinning things in the afternoon in that smarmy, supercilious way that only Gove can. He told the House that the automotive sector (and the retail sector) is "prepared" for a no deal Brexit on October 31st following a meeting with industry representatives on Monday this week. Faisal Islam at the BBC then spoke to people who attended Monday's meeting who told him there was no way anybody could have concluded that from the meeting. (See HERE)
He was apparently told the industry was "as prepared as they could be" but that a no deal Brexit would be a catastrophe. As a Brexiteer of course, he only hears what he wants to.
However, Cox and Gove were merely the warm-up act. Johnson had over three hours at the despatch box alternating between obfuscation, bluster and goading opposition MPs as the anger boiled over and became almost palpable. Viewers might have been shocked at our prime minister.
He aggravated the very people he needs to support his deal - if he ever gets one. When he should have been reaching out for every scrap of support to try and bridge the divide he did the precise opposite. He antagonised the House and even told the Labour MP Tracy Brabin, who replaced Jo Cox, that her protestations about his use of words were 'humbug' and that the best way to honour her memory would be to get Brexit 'done'. How insensitive can you get?
I hope Stanley Johnson was watching. If I had brought up a son like that I would be truly ashamed.
Having refused to spell out any details at all of his latest proposals he castigated the opposition at one point for not providing any ideas themselves to help him.
The PM kept talking of surrender, betrayal, capitulation and humiliation in between referring to the EU as our friends and partners. Brussels will have watched last night's events. If he thought they might have offered concessions to him before, he will almost certainly have ruined any prospect of concessions. The EU cannot reward that sort of populist rhetoric by compromising and it would send entirely the wrong message for any future negotiations.
Cameron queered the pitch for May with a needless referendum that he lost. May queered the pitch for Johnson by her ridiculous and unrealistic red lines. Johnson is now queering the pitch for his successor. If we leave without a deal he will soon be gone leaving the next PM to negotiate a deal with the EU from an even weaker position.
He must know that getting a new deal at this late stage is impossible. The Irish backstop takes up about 175 pages of the Withdrawal Agreement. All legally watertight. The EU have offered to replace it with our own legally operable alternative which needs to provide the same outcome as the backstop. Being wholly new and novel, it will need to be described in detail, which I assume will take a couple of hundred pages at least. This needs to be agreed with the EU27 and legally checked (scrubbed in the jargon) in the next couple of weeks.
So far we have submitted four short "non-papers" setting out some concepts which the EU have already rejected. Does it seem likely Johnson will conclude a new agreement? Of course it doesn't.
He cannot leave without a deal without breaking the law - which on last night's showing he is quite inclined to do - or ask for an extension, which he is not. MPs must now step in to remove him.
