Just when you thought political affairs in the UK had hit rock bottom, along comes the next scandal to remind you how incompetent many of our elected politicians really are.
Once again, Boris Johnson – our unelected Prime Minister – has thrown his hat into the ring for the honour of most slippery MP in the land, and that’s an accolade that is well contested, after it was confirmed he had lied to the Queen as part of the prorogation talks.
The UK Supreme Court has ruled that Boris’ suspension of Parliament was ‘unlawful’, and a blatant attempt to prevent his fellow politicians from critiquing his Brexit deal, which is now six weeks away from needing to be signed.
And now opposition parties are said to be joining forces in an attempt to get the PM to quit his position at 10 Downing Street.
The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, should resign. pic.twitter.com/HjIXE95UnO
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) 24 September 2019
For his part, Johnson has ruled out the possibility of resigning, saying in a statement while on holiday in New York that ‘obviously this is a verdict we will respect.’
“I don’t think that it’s right, but we will go ahead and of course Parliament will come back,” Boris continued.
So the Commons will re-open for business as usual, and any plans Boris had for a ‘snide’ Brexit agreement – or No Deal, as is likely – have now been put on the backburner.
But Will Boris Johnson Be Sacked?
The bottom line to take away from the Supreme Court’s ruling is that Boris Johnson actually tried to lie to the Queen, of all people, by giving her unlawful advice.
So let’s add that to his rap sheet: six lost votes in the Commons, an indictment in the Supreme Court – the highest of all legal powers in the UK – and wilfully misleading our ruling monarch.
Oh, and he’s only been in office for two months!
He will be pressurised into quitting as Prime Minister, of course, but that’s not really going to be on the agenda for a ‘career politician’ who has spent the past decade angling his way into 10 Downing Street.
But can Boris be sacked as PM? Well, not technically, but there are a range of measures that can be taken.
As now seems highly likely, a Vote of No Confidence – similar to the one that Theresa May survived in the last few months of her tenure – will be motioned against Boris. That lets MPs vote on whether they think he should carry on as the head honcho, and don’t be surprised to see some Tories turning on him if they believe he is a liability should we head to the polls for a general election in the coming months.
Or he could be impeached: an action that has never been taken against a British Prime Minister in more than 100 years. Impeachment action is usually only taken in the most serious of circumstances – does lying to the Queen fall under that category?
The bookmakers have had their say, and incredibly Boris is now evens to leave his role in 2019.
Annoyingly, that means a General Election is now more than likely, with November 2019 the favourite with the bookies at odds of 7/4.