LONDON — They call him “Failing Grayling.”

While the trials, tribulations and humiliations of Prime Minister Theresa May have occupied center stage in the carnival of British politics, Chris Grayling has starred in a black comedy sideshow of his own. He has bumbled his way from one government post to another, accused of making a hash of each, and becoming a byword for haplessness in a golden age of political blundering in Britain.

To take one of his most recent missteps, as transport minister trying to guard against the chaos that could accompany Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, he awarded an $18 million contract for extra ferries to handle cross-channel trade — to a company that owned no ferries.

And it didn’t end there. This past week, the government was forced to cough up 33 million pounds, about $44 million, to settle a lawsuit brought by Eurotunnel, which complained that it was unfairly prevented from bidding on the ferry contracts, which were negotiated in secret.

While the ferry fiasco was unfolding, Mr. Grayling organized a spectacularly ineffectual demonstration of Britain’s ability to deal with the backups of truck traffic expected in a no-deal Brexit. Those traffic jams could contain thousands of trucks, but for the test, he called for just 150, and only 89 turned up.