YOU might suspect this morning's Supreme Court ruling has the Tories in full panic mode – and the evidence suggests you'd be exactly right in doing so.
The Tory whips have instructed MPs not to comment after the 11 justices unanimously found that Boris Johnson's decision to prorogue Parliament was unlawful.
The Prime Minister is currently in New York for a UN summit and has only just broken his silence, but back at home, his team are fighting to manage the disaster of his and Dominic Cummings's making.
Amanda Milling, Tory deputy chief whip, sent an email to the party's politicians. It was revealed by Sky reporter Sam Coates.
READ MORE: Joanna Cherry: This is a defining moment in the failure of the British state
In it, Milling wrote: "Can I ask that colleagues do not make public comment about the Supreme Court judgement including media and social media."
That's right – they can't even Tweet about the ruling.
However, it seems not all the email's recipients were fans. It only took 10 minutes for the email to leak on Twitter.
And the memo didn't quite come fast enough for all the Tories. Andrew Bridgen MP had already been on the airwaves, serving up – in all fairness – a fairly perfect example of why the party doesn't trust its MPs.
On the BBC, asked if Johnson should resign, he said: "We need Boris to be strong, it's the worst possbile outcome for our democracy."
READ MORE: First Minister's full Sky News interview on Supreme Court ruling
He added: "I think what we've got is a Parliament that's completely out of step with sentiment of the country, they're holding our democracy to ransom, they're completely ignoring the vote we had in 2016 to leave the European Union. It's an absolute disgrace.
"What we're going to see now is the Speaker effectively taking control of Parliament and playing to the Remainers' tune until October 31 when he resigns.
"We've got a zombie Parliament that won't go back to the people and be held to account for the way we've voted and the things we've said."
‘We need Boris to be strong, it’s the worst possible outcome for our democracy’ says pro-Brexit MP Andrew Bridgen
— Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) September 24, 2019
Supreme Court rules the PM’s decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful.https://t.co/9JFoleqs1E pic.twitter.com/7mddfNvZEj
It was an impressive amount of hypocrisy packed into a short clip, but he was saved by Joanna Cherry – the show had to cut to her speakng.
The UK is on course for the shortest-term Prime Minister of all time.
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