Boris Johnson created Brexit. Now he has to own it

At just before midday today, Brexiters will own Brexit for the first time, and that will really matter – if, as expected, Johnson is crowned Tory leader.

Because from that moment, they will have no one but themselves to either praise or blame, for either Britain’s brave new dawn or its slow and painful demise (whichever turns out to be our fate).

The point is that, till today, Brexiters inside and outside the Tory party, from Jacob Rees-Mogg to Nigel Farage, have been able to attribute the failure to deliver Brexit, and an absence of the great sense of national rebirth that they expected, on the treacherous and pesky Remainers, who currently occupy all four of the great offices of state.

If it hadn’t been for Theresa May as PM, their argument runs, the UK would already have left the EU and would be basking in the glorious sunshine of independence.

Well maybe. Or maybe not.