Donald Trump’s pal Boris Johnson just suffered an ugly blow

| 1:30 pm EDT September 3, 2019
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Donald Trump’s pal Boris Johnson recently became Prime Minister by default, as the UK government continues to fall apart amid controversy over Brexit. Johnson promptly announced he was suspending Parliament. This was a high risk, high reward move that would either make Brexit happen, or send Johnson off a cliff.

We still don’t know how this is going to end, but Boris Johnson just suffered an ugly blow. Phillip Lee of the House of Commons just announced that he’s quitting Johnson’s conservative party and joining the opposition party, specifically because he opposes Brexit. This is more than a mere symbolic move, as the shift in power takes the majority away from Johnson’s party, and the development was heralded by the Liberal Democrats. So now what?

This means Boris Johnson probably can’t obtain any sort of pro-Brexit vote from Parliament, meaning he’ll have to try to delay Brexit once again. Considering that his recent power play has been based entirely on his promise that he can make Brexit happen within weeks, the timing of this development is awful for him.

But it’s worse than just losing a one-seat majority. The BBC says that roughly fifteen members of Boris Johnson’s own party in Parliament are thought to be opposing him on Brexit. Even as he tries to bully them into falling in line, one of them has already defected. This whole thing is ugly, and it may get ugliest of all for Boris.