We have to begin rebuilding a politics of equality or we’re goosed

The party Boris Johnson will lead will not just be hopelessly divided, it will have no real mandate, in a country that is itself torn down the middle, writes Fergus Finlay

So, decency didn’t win in the end. Lies did. Lies about immigration, lies about the national health service, lies about how the economy would boom in the aftermath of Brexit. It’s the liars, not the meek, who have inherited the earth.

Now Boris Johnson is going to challenge for the leadership of the party he has just torn in half. And (although no prediction is safe anymore) he’ll probably win. The party he will lead will not just be hopelessly divided, it will have no real mandate, in a country that is itself torn down the middle.