In a surreal twist, the PM may also have to resign in the process

With Parliament determined to block no deal (and thus any chance of getting a better deal), it will now be challenging for Boris Johnson to fulfill his promise, and get Britain out of the EU by October 31.

The big question is: what is Boris’ plan? I now expect that Boris will allow Parliament’s anti-no deal bill to pass. (If he were considering withholding Royal Assent I believe minsters would have mentioned it by now.) His attempts to persuade Parliament to vote for an early general election next week will fail. Parliament will then be prorogued next week until October 14.

The European Council meeting on October 17 and 18 will not agree to any new Brexit deal. The anti-no deal bill then requires the PM to apply for an extension by October 19.

Boris will not do that. He said yesterday he would rather die in a ditch.

Maybe one could imagine that he simply refuses and invites Parliament to apply whatever sanction is relevant. It’s not apparent precisely what that sanction would be. Boris’s adviser Dominic Cummings has form on ignoring instructions from a Parliamentary Committee, including being declared in contempt of Parliament — though the Committee had no material sanction it could apply to enforce its will. So it’s just conceivable Mr Johnson might invite Parliament to do its worst.