A damning speech aimed straight at May

The echoes of Geoffrey Howe’s famous speech that brought down Mrs Thatcher in 1990 were strong when Boris Johnson rose from precisely the same seat in the Commons yesterday to explain his resignation from the Cabinet. Both were former foreign secretaries and both had fallen out with a female prime minister over Europe. But after that the parallels were less apparent. To begin with, Mrs Thatcher sat through Sir Geoffrey’s diatribe while Theresa May was otherwise engaged giving evidence to a Commons select committee.

Moreover, the Howe intervention was an open invitation to Mrs Thatcher’s detractors to challenge her for the leadership, as Michael Heseltine subsequently did. Mr Johnson was less personal in his criticism; indeed, he praised Mrs May’s qualities. But the implications of his powerful and well-delivered address were every bit as devastating. He said the Chequers agreement on Brexit would leave the UK in “a miserable permanent limbo”.

Mrs May had moved from an upbeat approach in her Lancaster House speech of January 2017 to the “fog of self-doubt” exhibited at Chequers. The Prime Minister’s supporters would doubtless point out that there was a general election in between those two events that limited her political options because she lost her majority.

But Mr Johnson was accusing the Prime Minister of failing to show the leadership that might have realised her initial vision. She had “dithered and burned through our negotiating capital”; handed over £40 billion for nothing in return; refused to contemplate perfectly workable ideas for solving the Ireland border question; and had staged a stealthy retreat from a position she had put to voters at last year’s general election. Not only was the country “volunteering for economic vassalage” but people were being misled over the Government’s true intentions.

Eloquent and restrained, this speech was every bit as damning as Howe’s 28 years ago. Mr Johnson said Brexit could be salvaged but not on the terms set out at Chequers – a deal that is dead even if Mrs May clings to the corpse. Conservative support is starting to slide in the polls; but after a close shave on Tuesday night in the Commons, Mrs May has been given some breathing space. Over the summer she must use it to rethink. As Mr Johnson said, it is not too late; but time is running out.