Remainers may regret not backing an October general election

So there goes the reputation of Boris Johnson’s henchmen as cunning operators. It has been a bad week for Dominic Cummings and others in the Downing Street bunker who were widely assumed to have gamed every possibility and to have some genius strategy for delivering Brexit by 31 October, in spite of the assembled forces of Remain who are determined to stop them. Clearly, not everything has gone to plan. The Remainers have enjoyed their Battle of Marston Moor. It is Parliamentarians 1, Cavaliers 0. On Monday, a bill seeking to prevent a no-deal Brexit on 31 October will become law – and Boris has been denied his fallback: a general election.

But not so fast. I think Remainers may just have made a huge slip-up of their own – and may come bitterly to regret their decision not to back an October election. If they do fail to prevent a no-deal Brexit it will be because they lost concentration and allowed Corbyn’s personal political interests to take precedence over what ought to be their central cause of stopping Brexit.