Rudd’s resignation is a devastating blow but don’t expect Johnson to change his strategy

This truly has been a horrendous week for Boris Johnson.

Amber Rudd’s resignation, just 48 hours after Jo Johnson’s, has dealt the prime minister another serious blow

The pro-EU work and pensions secretary survived the July cull of cabinet Remainers after she agreed to sign up to his 31 October Brexit – hopeful no doubt he would be able to secure a deal.

Amid the turmoil of the past week she kept her counsel, but it is now clear that the sacking of the 21 rebels was too much to bear and she would rather bow out. Politically and morally she couldn’t stomach the One Nation wing of the party being eviscerated. And when it came to policy, she had lost faith that this prime minister was even trying to secure a deal with Brussels. Like his brother Jo, it was time to bow out.

Boris Johnson’s plan was to prorogue parliament in order to block anti no-deal legislation and get Brexit across the line on 31 October or trigger an election to settle the matter before the deadline. This week he has failed to do either. Number 10 has become a gilded cage. He is backed into a corner but don’t expect him to change his strategy at all. He is going to fight on. As one government source put it to me this weekend: Mr Johnson will under no circumstances ask for an extension. His one mission is to get the UK out of the EU, do or die, ‪on 31 October.

Government sources tell me that he will do whatever it takes to achieve that end, even if it means a fight in the Supreme Court over the law passed by parliament to demand a Brexit extension. He knows he must deliver on his Brexit promise or face cries of betrayal from Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

So he is prepared to defy the law of the land, and completely blow up the Conservative Party to achieve these aims. He hopes those Brexiteers who might vote for him will see his commitment to the cause. He’ll break the law, destroy his party, even lose his brother in order to deliver Brexit.

The Conservatives are transforming into the party of Vote Leave. It is a scorched earth policy in which the traditions that have defined the party for decades are unravelling. The Tory party is moving from a broad church to becoming a narrow one. For decades the One Nation, pro-European wing has lived alongside the Eurosceptics but there is no accommodation any more.

It was this very coalition of political views that won David Cameron an outright majority in 2015 – the Tories first in 23 years. Now Mr Johnson and his team think they can win a majority on the back of Brexit votes. And that means the pro-Europeans are expendable. It is the end of the Tory party as we know it.

It has undoubtedly been a difficult week personally and politically for Mr Johnson but what will be of some comfort to him is that a YouGov poll out on Saturday night shows that he hasn’t lost support from the public – the Tories are still polling 35% against Labour’s 21%.

He has lost his brother, he is losing his party. His best hope now is that he can hold onto public support.

(c) Sky News 2019: Rudd’s resignation is a devastating blow but don’t expect Johnson to change his strategy