Boris has blown it

Humphrey CarterPalma25/09/2019 10:22

Yesterday was neither a good day for Boris Johnson nor the United Kingdom. In New York, there was no ‘New York breakthrough’ after Johnson met with European Council president Donald Tusk. The two leaders sat down to try and come up with some progress on the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU - but failed. Nothing really new there but the big hit, and the one which has surely blown Boris totally off course and on to one which can only lead to his resignation, was the ruling by the Supreme Court that Johnson had acted unlawfully by advising Queen Elizabeth to suspend parliament.

Deciding that Johnson had abused his powers as prime minister, Lady Hale - the president of the Supreme Court - said that his actions “had the effect of frustrating or preventing Parliament from carrying out its constitutional functions.”

She added that “the effect on the fundamentals of democracy was extreme.” This is one seriously heavy condemnation of Johnson, who has already twice failed to push through snap elections to build a majority in favour of his Brexit plan.

It also came at the perfect time for the Labour Party because the ruling was announced just moments before Jeremy Corbyn addressed the party conference. Boris may feel he has been unlucky and hard done by. I don’t, I think he should now do the honourable thing and resign.