OPINION: The FT View
Rarely has a UK prime minister's strategy imploded so rapidly, and so spectacularly. In two days, Boris Johnson has become the first premier since the Earl of Rosebery in 1894 to lose his first parliament vote, and seen MPs back a bill to force him to take a course he has categorically ruled out. He has collapsed his own working majority from one to minus 43 — by backing himself into a position where he was forced to sack 21 rebels, including two former Conservative chancellors and the grandson of his political hero, Winston Churchill. He has led his party to the brink of a historic split. His plan to strike back with a snap election is hostage to his opponents' agreement.
The so-called Rebel Alliance of MPs who took control of parliament's agenda and supported a law mandating Johnson to seek an extension to Brexit beyond October 31 deserve high praise. The Conservatives among them put national interest ahead of their careers and loyalty to a party some had served for decades. Most important, MPs asserted parliamentary sovereignty and cut down to size a prime minister who, by suspending the House for five weeks, had sought to bypass it.
They were impelled to act by a catalogue of prime ministerial mis-steps. Like his predecessor Theresa May, Johnson hemmed himself in with his own red lines. History did indeed repeat itself — not as tragedy but as farce. He adopted his "do or die" pledge to leave the EU at Halloween with or without a deal. Then, by insisting the backstop designed to prevent a hard border in Ireland must be scrapped, he set the bar for renegotiations with Brussels so high that it cast doubt on his sincerity in wanting a deal. He has since brought no workable new proposals.