Boris Johnson’s increasingly desperate tactics suggest he has lost the Brexit argument

Editorial: It seems that the prime minister’s latest plan is to launch a campaign to disrupt EU institutions in the hope of getting the UK expelled

The latest cunning plan from the strategic geniuses of Downing Street is for the British government to make life so difficult for the other members of the European Union that they decide to expel the United Kingdom.

“We will turn the pressure on to the EU to show how difficult it will be for them if the UK is still hanging around,” we report a No 10 official as saying. “If they won’t negotiate a deal, it would be ideal if they would kick us out.”

From the arrogant tacticians who briefed journalists that the prime minister might advise the Queen to refuse royal assent to a bill he found inconvenient, and then that, if the bill did become law, he might disobey it, this is further desperate stuff.