Boris Johnson is so duplicitous that he is even willing to renege on himself

A Brexit won on a pack of lies. An election rooted in a sulk. And an EU backtrack that threatens to tear up the rule of International law, risk ongoing peace in Northern Ireland, and accelerate the break-up of the UK.

This is Boris Johnson’s Britain. A rogue state and a global pariah.

I work in the political bubble, and even I find it difficult to explain last week’s extraordinary political events centered around the Internal Market Bill as anything other than just the latest salvo in a Tory Brexit psychodrama.

When before has a member of the government so flagrantly admitted on the floor of the House of Commons that the government would knowingly break the law?

But so brazen was the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis, in his cack-handed admission that the government would ride roughshod over the EU Withdrawal Agreement signed by Johnson just a year ago, that it prompted one senior Tory MP to tweet: “That sound you hear? It’s the sound of the Supreme Court preparing to remind ministers that intentionally breaking the law – even in a very specific and limited way – is, well unlawful.”

Apparently, the government had signed the deal in a hurry…it hadn’t had time to read it…there were still loose ends to tie down…it didn’t trust the EU…it had its fingers crossed. And anyway, while this was all admittedly leading to a party that used to be all for law and order breaking the law, it was only breaking the law a little.

What a load of cobblers.

Johnson fought an election on his version of the Withdrawal Agreement to get Brexit done. He ordered all 635 Tory candidates in last year’s campaign to agree to support it. He said it was ‘oven-ready. And now he’s saying it was under done.

The man has not a shred of integrity.

It might suit Johnson to project a strong-arm image of him tearing up a divorce deal, that hard Brexiteers never wanted in the first place, in the face of incredulous Europeans, but the hit to our global reputation as a reliable trading partner should not be lightly ignored.

His actions may have already attracted condemnation from at least two former Tory leaders in Sir John Major and Theresa May, and the resignation of two senior legal civil servants, but it is clear that this is just another staging post in the chaos wreaked on this country by a dysfunctional prime minister and his government of ‘yes’ men.

This bill isn’t just about damaging relations with Europe, it’s a real threat to the Good Friday Agreement, risks peace in Northern Ireland, and gives lie to the fact that there is no devolution power grab. But he doesn’t seem to care.

These are perilous times for the country. Peace, devolution and our future deals with the rest of the world are all put at risk by a Tory prime minister who plays fast and loose with the truth.

He lied when he prorogued parliament, he lied about getting a deal, and he has lied to the EU. At its heart, is the question of the trustworthiness of our prime minister and the dismal realisation that Johnson is so duplicitous that he is even willing to renege on himself.