Johnson is playing a very dangerous game

IT USED to be said that if Margaret Thatcher is the answer, it must be a silly question. Boris Johnson’s behaviour as British foreign secretary goes beyond silly. Undermining his own position is routine enough, but shafting his own prime minister, while betraying a total misunderstanding of the gravity of what is at stake on Brexit, is shredding the credibility of Theresa May’s government.

One Labour MP described Mr Johnson as the best Donald Trump tribute act around. He certainly shares an equal disrespect for international agreements and disregard for history and its consequences.

Mr Johnson warned of a Brexit “meltdown” and called for “guts” in exit talks; comparing Mrs May unfavourably to Mr Trump, he suggested the US president would “go in bloody hard” and “might get somewhere”.

He is stumped by how something as insignificant as Ireland could block the munificence and greatness Brexit guarantees in his Utopian vision. In reference to the Border he said: “It’s so small and there are so few firms that actually use that Border regularly, it’s just beyond belief we’re allowing the tail to wag the dog in this way.”

His posturing and the spasm of paralysis at Downing Street has stirred the wrath of EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. He has attacked the UK for trying to “intimidate” him by playing a “blame game”.

He has rightly appealed for more trust and realism from the UK. In a mocking allusion to Mrs May’s infamous “Brexit means Brexit” remark, that there could be no backtracking on the December Brexit deal, Mr Barnier countered insisting “backstop means backstop”.

With a deadline looming in October, surely the blurring of boundaries by creating an utterly unstable environment in which it is difficult to define the nature of either friendship or enmity is in nobody’s interest.