No Surrender

As Ian Blackford, Anna Soubry, Chukka Umunna and Caroline Lucas laughed and cheered outside the High Court on Tuesday morning, who would have thought that less than 36 hours later, they’d be wishing that the 11 learned judges had ruled the other way. Posing smugly for the cameras – basking in a victory in which they had played no part – they couldn’t have foreseen the mauling opposition MPs would receive on their unexpected return. For it was a day of astonishing government rearguard action - certainly not the triumphant return to parliament Remainers had been hoping for.

Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox set the tone. With a performance likely to draw a sternly worded letter from Brian Blessed’s lawyers, he left returning opposition MPs in no doubt who he blamed for the current Brexit impasse, describing the opposition front bench as 'spineless’, and parliament itself as ‘cowardly’. ‘It has no moral right to sit on these green benches,' he boomed. ‘This parliament is a disgrace.’ 17.4 million people rose as one.

The statements that followed, while never likely to live up to Cox’s, were delivered to a half empty chamber. Yes, they had been given a roasting and many no doubt had scuttled sheepishly back to their offices. But the empty seats were an odd way to demonstrate to the British people the importance of not losing a minute of parliamentary time at this moment of ‘national emergency’. It was, after all, the reason the prorogation had so upset them.

They returned, however, for the main event of the day which – despite Cox’s heroics – was always going to be the statement from the Prime Minister, only recently returned from New York.  But rather than the chastened, demoralized and apologetic figure the opposition had been hoping for, Johnson gave without doubt the most charismatic performance of his short tenure. One after the other, opposition leaders rose to attack. One after the other, Johnson swatted them away. In a blistering attack, he reminded them that they were perfectly entitled to get rid of him. Call the election you all claim you want, he goaded.

Pushed time and time again to apologise, Johnson refused. Pushed time and again to desist from referring to the Benn Bill as the Surrender Bill, he doubled down. But given that Johnson genuinely sees the bill as a surrender, surely, he is entitled to say so? Surely, no amount of opposition posturing can turn that word into an offensive term?

And here’s the thing: If you genuinely think that ‘surrender’ is an offensive term and if you’d genuinely prefer a bill you pass in the House of Commons not to be referred to as a ‘Surrender Bill’, it’s better not to make it a surrender bill. If you’d rather the Prime Minister didn’t talk about capitulation, it’s better not to force him to capitulate.

Seeing how badly their day was going, opposition MPs performed a reverse Michelle Obama: ‘When Boris goes high, we go low.’ Such was the paucity of their arguments, they reached deep into the bottom drawer of dirty tricks and took out the Jo Cox card. In what it is hard to imagine was not a coordinated move, female opposition MPs, referencing the 2016 murder of the Labour MP, stood up and linked threats to their lives to Johnson’s ‘inflammatory language'.

It was not the first reference to her death. Earlier in the day Geoffrey Cox had pronounced the current parliament as the ‘dead’ parliament – surely an irrefutable fact. But Labour MP Alison McGovern took to twitter to describe his comments as ‘beyond a joke’, urging the Attorney General to remember Jo Cox’s death. A ridiculous response, but dutifully retweeted by Cathy Newman, never one to miss an opportunity to put the boot in on a powerful man.

But it was Paula Sherriff’s intervention that was the most explosive.  ‘We stand here under the shield of our departed friend with many of us in this place subject to death threats and abuse every single day.’ Had she stopped there, her point would have been valid. But unable to help herself, she instead blamed the Prime Minister for these threats saying that he ‘should be ashamed’. Johnson dismissed her claim - that he was responsible - as ‘Humbug’, unleashing an outpouring of anger on the opposition benches.

But how, given the rhetoric that has poisoned our political landscape of late, was it Geoffrey Cox’s use of the word ‘dead’ and Johnson’s use of the word ‘surrender’ that triggered such an outpouring of opposition anger? It wasn’t ‘coup’ or ‘dictator’ that appalled them. Not ‘far right’ nor ‘extremist’. Neither ‘Nazi’ nor ‘fascist’. ‘But 'surrender'?  Clearly beyond the pale.

Predictably, David Lammy was appalled. The same David Lammy who compared the ERG to Nazis – in a statement he said wasn’t ‘strong enough’. John McDonnell was shocked. The same John McDonnell who spoke of killing Margaret Thatcher and lynching Esther McVey. Ed Davey was furious. The same Ed Davey who had called for a ‘a Remain alliance to decapitate that blond head in Uxbridge and South Ruislip’. Jo Swinson was almost in tears. The same Jo Swinson, the leader of a party whose members last week, in a cheerful conference ditty, urged Tony Blair to ‘fuck off and die’. Jess Philips was moved to ask an urgent question on parliamentary language. The same Jess Philips who threatened ‘to knife [Jeremy Corbyn] in the front.’

And away from parliament, last week a rapper whose name I did not recognize then and which I have forgotten since, emerged at an awards ceremony clutching the fake decapitated head of Boris Johnson. He held it aloft to cheers and laughter. It was a sickening display both from the artist and his audience. But where was the opposition outrage then?

None of this, of course, is to make light of genuine threats to our politicians – female MPs in particular. The abuse many of them receive is vile. Jo Swinson is perfectly entitled to want to stop Brexit. Anna Soubry can of course leave the Conservatives and argue for a second referendum. They do so from a deep and genuine belief that they are right. And they should be able to do so without threat or intimidation. But to claim that this abuse results from our current Prime Minister’s description of a Bill he loathes is laughable.

But then we know that the offence taken last night in parliament was affected, the tears crocodile. Labour MPs weaponized the death of a slain colleague in a deeply callous and unpleasant manner in an attempt to deflect from the shortcomings of their own parties. Had Johnson apologized to Sheriff, or had he stopped referring to the Benn Bill as the 'Surrender Bill' it would have been tantamount to accepting that two unconnected events were linked. He was right to do neither.

When Lady Hale read out the Supreme Court’s ruling on Tuesday morning there was much jubilation. Gloating MPs tweeted pictures of themselves already sitting back in the House of Commons, eager further to humiliate the Prime Minister. But events yesterday served only to reinforce what we already knew. This parliament is finished, discredited and without mandate. It has to go. The opposition wasn’t upset by the Prime Minister’s language last night. They were upset that no matter what tricks they play, no matter how much they delay, the public cannot be fooled.  As Geoffrey Cox warned, Christmas is coming.