22 May 2019updated 07 Jun 2021 4:10pm

Repellent, chaotic and a serial liar, Boris Johnson would be a catastrophic prime minister

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 09: Former Mayor of London Boris Johnson delivers a 'Vote Leave' speech on May 9, 2016 in London, England. Mr Johnson laid out his case for 'Brexit' to journalists. Earlier today during a European Union (EU) speech at the British Museum, British Prime Minister David Cameron warned that if Britain left the European Union it would put peace and stability on the continent at risk. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

You thought it couldn’t get worse? It certainly can. Britain now faces the very real prospect of Boris Johnson moving into N0 10 (with or without his current girlfriend). He would do so as the country faces its gravest crisis since the Second World War – a crisis of which he was a principal architect – and without having won a general election. He would have been chosen, quite preposterously, by fewer than 120,000 ageing, reactionary Tory party members.

Rules are rules: the party with the most MPs selects the prime minister. But the Conservatives have no overwhelming popular mandate. Indeed, they were emphatically denied one in 2017. Theirs is a minority government sustained only by a squalid deal with the Democratic Unionist Party.