The closer Boris Johnson forces the union together, the more likely it will fall apart | Martin Kettle

Vital decisions about Wales and Scotland are being unilaterally taken in Westminster, fuelling the arguments for devolution

It is often rightly claimed that Boris Johnson is determined not to lead the United Kingdom out of the European Union only to preside over the UK’s own breakup. Johnson is not as indifferent to the UK’s survival as some around him. The problem is that his chosen UK survival strategy is increasingly having the opposite effect. It is threatening to aid the breakup of the UK not to prevent it.

The problem goes far beyond Johnson’s Marmite personality. It even goes beyond the facts that he is a Conservative and led the break with Europe. Johnson’s centrifugal destructiveness to the UK rests increasingly on the particular kind of unionism he embraces and on the measures that he takes to promote it.

Related: Westminster warned as poll shows record backing for Welsh independence

Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist

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