Philip Hammond has been a disastrous Chancellor and his legacy could be to destroy the Tories

NOT for years has a man dishonoured high office as  Philip Hammond is now doing.

If he intends to rebrand himself as the Remainers’ rebel leader why doesn’t he have the guts to resign immediately?

Instead he is misusing his last days as Chancellor, texting fellow Tory mutineers to undermine Boris Johnson, then  sneaking off to the foreign Press to talk up a second referendum and threaten to ­topple his own party’s Government.

All while virtue-signalling to Brussels about the “vulgar, thoughtless and noisy” Brits desperate for Brexit to ­happen, as our democracy demands.

Hammond has been a disaster as Chancellor, his achievements all but non-existent. He now hopes to redefine himself as the man who stopped No Deal, crashed the new PM and Government, triggered an election and possibly destroyed the Tories. Quite the legacy.

There are a fair few walking calamities in Theresa May’s Cabinet. But none worse.

A rookie error

IS it any surprise Mrs May secured such a disastrous deal when she never threatened the EU that we might leave without one?

Any negotiator has to keep the option of walking away. Yet the EU’s Michel Barnier says our PM didn’t mention it.

She told voters “No Deal is better than a bad deal” but never  meant a word.

The first person to raise it in Brussels was her second Brexit Secretary, Leaver Dominic Raab. “Your Prime Minister has never dared say this to us — never,” Barnier squeaked in shock.

There’s a book Mrs May’s team should have read: Negotiating For Dummies.

One admitted on Radio 4 that he wants a permanent job-destroying recession, claiming economic growth — which raises living standards and funds our public services — is killing  the planet.

If “mass death” and “climate genocide” were genuinely and provably imminent then, yes, they would trump everything. Extinction Rebellion’s fact-denying ­hysteria and absurd ultimatums do not.

Nor are they a licence to defy the law and inflict hardship — costing taxpayers millions — on people innocently going about their day. Especially when the true motivation is Marxist revolution.

MPs should not engage with them.

Cops must swiftly arrest them, keep our roads moving and our planes flying.