If May fights on, a hard Brexit is inevitable. Only Boris Johnson might avert it

If Theresa May manages to carry on as Prime Minister, her precarious position within the Conservative Party and in Parliament will leave her a weaker negotiator. Kevin Featherstone argues that if she fights on – and either returns from Brussels without a deal, or is ousted after failing to secure an acceptable one – Tory party politics make a hard Brexit inevitable. Were Boris Johnson to take over before negotiations begin, he might have the political capital to make the compromises a less destructive Brexit would require.