Boris is just the man to bury Brexit

Sit down, my swivel-eyed Brexiter friend, and pour yourself a stiff whisky. I’ve something to tell you that’s going to be a bit difficult for both of us. Sitting comfortably? Your swivel-eyed Remainer columnist has discerned just the tiniest glint of a silver lining to the dark cloud of a possible Boris Johnson premiership.

And the reason? It’s this. The most important ability the next Tory leader must possess is the ability to break bad news. To get away with this and bring the voters with you, real leadership is required: not just eloquence, not just empathy, but the command, the confidence and the sheer guts to face the inevitable, grab the bull by the horns, and spit it out. And before the end of this autumn, somebody is going to have to tell the British people that we aren’t leaving.

I write this just before the elections to the European Parliament. You may read me after the polls have closed and before the results are released. But I’ll take a stab, now, at those results. Up to half the total electorate will have bothered to vote, and the other half will have stayed at home. Around a third of those who did vote will have voted for Nigel Farage’s Brexit party: the only hard-Brexit, no-deal-if-necessary party standing.

It will follow that about a third of at most half the electorate will have voted for a hard, no-deal-if-necessary Brexit. That’s 17 per cent maximum, but let’s be generous to Nigel and call it a fifth.

That will mean that four fifths of the electorate will have declined the best opportunity we British will get to signal that we’re ready and willing to leave without a deal. Nevertheless, the result will be splashed across next week’s papers and news reports as a terrific result for hardline Brexiters.