This government is bathing in negative publicity, using the storm of indignant fury to whip up the Tory grassroots and stoke the belief that a ‘remainer elite’ is against them

If anti no-deal Conservative MPs had been able to meet the prime minister on Monday, they could have asked him what has changed in a few weeks to see a no-deal Brexit go from being a “million-to-one shot” to now having a “50-50” chance of happening. Boris Johnson’s so far mercifully brief time in office has, by his own words, reduced the likelihood of negotiating a deal with the European Union 500,000-fold. Truth has long been a casualty of Brexit, but with Mr Johnson’s ascent to Downing Street Britain has truly fallen victim to a virus of populism. The prime minister is complicit in undermining deliberative democracy and replacing it with lies. The will of the people, absurdly, is now defined by the 52% who voted leave three years ago. The government unfairly tars its opponents as deviously powerful groups of remainers who are adept at using institutions like the courts to frustrate Brexit.

Thankfully, some are still unbowed. Former Tory ministers are threatening to seize control of the order paper in parliament this week and push through a bill preventing a no-deal Brexit. They ought to be backed. Britain teeters on the cliff edge of a hard Brexit. Even with the support of 10 DUP MPs, a dozen or so Tory rebels can bring down a wayward Johnson government by leaving it. In response, the prime minister has refused to rule out automatically deselecting any Tory MP who moves against his administration. With a majority of just one, it is only a matter of time before Mr Johnson will have to go the country in a snap general election. When the prime minister does so, he will want to do it on the best possible terms. To remain in the EU would mean Mr Johnson’s political death. His own party membership has become so radicalised that they would rather break up the United Kingdom than not leave the EU.

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