All the talk about a ‘people vs politicians’ election is another bit of Brexit bluster and bluff

Editorial: Sooner or later it will dawn on Boris Johnson that he cannot take the UK out of the EU without a deal or without parliamentary approval. He could, however, do so with a second referendum

Monday 05 August 2019 19:30 BST
Comments
Boris Johnson says that 'no government will take the UK out of the single market' in clip from 2011

Taking Boris Johnson at his word – always a bit of a gamble – there will be no general election, at least before Brexit, and certainly not one that he himself initiates. Just for a change, there are good reasons to believe him on this, if few other affairs of state.

Recall the rather contrived acronym retrospectively devised for his leadership campaign – Dude. It was short for Deliver Brexit, Unite the country, Defeat Jeremy Corbyn, Energise. It seems obvious that any election campaign launched before Mr Johnson has actually delivered Brexit would not “defeat Jeremy Corbyn”. It would, rather, suffer from the glaring fact that he hadn’t actually delivered on Brexit.

Like his ill-starred predecessor, Mr Johnson has one job to do – getting the UK out of the EU – and he cannot afford to go to the country before he has achieved it. Whether that happens on 31 October or not is secondary. The voters would not take much of a different view if the Brexit legislation was signed off on, say, 5 November, another symbolic date. The important point is whether Mr Johnson has done what he has based his entire political career on doing. If not, he risks humiliation at the polls, and a record short premiership.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in