(Bloomberg Opinion) -- As U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson sat at the United Nations in New York, his political strategy was collapsing at home.
On Tuesday, Britain’s Supreme Court shot down Johnson’s decision last month to suspend Parliament. It was an unequivocal rebuke: All 11 justices concurred that Johnson’s plan was “unlawful, void and of no effect” and rejected each of the government’s arguments to the contrary. The ruling’s implication: The prime minister had been disingenuous about his motives and acted only to prevent Parliament from thwarting his Brexit plans.
Since coming to office in July, the prime minister has been at pains to show that he’s willing to take the U.K. out of the European Union without an exit deal, on the theory that this might give him more leverage with the EU’s negotiators. Sensing that Parliament might try to undermine this foolish effort, he opted to shutter the legislature for five weeks.
This was both politically cynical and tactically misguided. Johnson’s stated rationale — that he needed time to lay out his domestic agenda — fooled no one, including (it’s now evident) the courts. Rather than tie lawmakers’ hands, his decision united previously disparate factions and spurred them to act quickly to block a no-deal exit before Parliament’s doors were shut. A shambles all around.
So what now?
For starters, Johnson should yield to reality. As an unelected prime minister without a mandate, he has lost his majority, failed to make visible progress in Brexit talks, made history by suffering six parliamentary defeats in six days, and now had his most substantive decision in office ruled unlawful. That the courts even felt compelled to involve themselves in a plainly political dispute shows how much damage this chaotic approach is doing to Britain’s institutions.
Continuing on like this will help no one. Johnson should concede that he won’t able to negotiate a new deal with the EU that can command a majority under these circumstances and request an extension as the law requires. With the worst-case scenario — a no-deal, extensionless exit on Oct. 31 — off the table, an election should logically follow.
Unfortunately, that may not settle anything. Both of the U.K.’s main parties are in disarray and hopelessly split on Brexit. The likelihood that a new prime minister could secure a majority for any particular exit scenario looks as remote as ever. In the end, the most democratic way to settle this dispute is to let voters have a say in a second referendum, one that offers a choice between a specific exit deal and remaining in the EU. Such a vote would heal no wounds. But it would offer both clarity and legitimacy, two things that have been notably lacking from Johnson’s approach.
For his part, the prime minister is showing few signs of backing down. Unless he rethinks his failed strategy, a crisis of some kind seems all too likely in the weeks ahead.
Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.
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