The UK faces a nation-defining battle that will split the Tory party | Martin Kettle

Whether Boris Johnson negotiates with the EU or ignores parliament and continues with no deal, his party will never be the same again

Throughout his nine years in Conservative-led British cabinets, Philip Hammond was regularly compared to AA Milne’s Eeyore. But what the lugubrious former chancellor did today was almost Tiggerish. By warning that Boris Johnson’s government is set on driving through a no-deal Brexit that parliament will oppose he gave the UK’s indolent August politics a much-needed wake-up call.

In the three weeks since a hard-Brexit Tory coup put Johnson into Downing Street, politics has drifted into La-La land. An accumulated combination of long parliamentary stalemate, public weariness, an ineffectual Labour opposition, a compliant press and the well-executed strategy of the new Tory leader has made the Johnson government’s Brexit policy seem more inevitable than it actually is. By breaking cover, Hammond has provided an overdue reminder that the facts are still the facts.

Brexit recasts voter loyalties in ways that threaten the Tory reputation as the UK's most successful electoral force

Related: Johnson’s government doesn’t care about no-deal sceptics like Philip Hammond | Katy Balls

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