for leather for a no-deal Brexit.

The new British prime minister has entered office

saying he will only talk about a new Brexit deal with the EU

if it doesn't include that troublesome Irish border

backstop.

The EU says they're not interested.

So Mr Johnson, instead, is ramping up preparations

to leave on October the 31 without a deal.

But many MPs in parliament aren't happy with this

and are trying to challenge Mr Johnson's new policy.

But there are so many questions about

whether they have to bring down his government,

whether they can force his hand and, most importantly,

whether they have the power to stop a no-deal Brexit.

The main supporting MPs in parliament

are becoming increasingly convinced the only way

to stop a no-deal Brexit is to bring down

Mr Johnson's government.

Mr Johnson only has a working majority in parliament of one.

And the numbers for winning a confidence

vote when parliament returns in September

are very tight indeed.

So whether he can win that vote or not

is going to be very uncertain.

And if he loses that vote, then there's

not much time left before Britain will

head to a general election.

Britain has an unwritten constitution.

And there's lots of conventions that

say what the prime minister should do, not what he must do.

Normally, if Mr Johnson lost a confidence vote then

he would quit and make way for someone else.

But people close to the prime minister

say he won't do that at all.

He's not interested in what parliament or MPs think.

Instead, he's only focused on delivering Brexit

by October the 31st.

In his own words - come what may, do or die.

So if he does lose that confidence vote,

he won't be going anywhere.

If Mr Johnson loses that confidence vote in September,

there's a 14-day period which would allow another government

to step in its place.

If nothing happens in that time, then it's

back over to the prime minister to decide

when an election is held.

It must be called within 25 days.

But Boris Johnson doesn't want an election

to happen until the UK has left the EU,

knowing that his Conservative party would

be under threat from Nigel Farage's Brexit party.

So you could imagine Mr Johnson pushing the date back as far as

possible until after October the 31st, when the UK automatically

has left the EU.

If the general election is held after the UK has

left the EU without a deal, then it all

comes down to how disruptive a no-deal Brexit is.

Mr Johnson would be betting that the disruption could

be contained, and he would pitch an election as parliament

versus the people.

The people who voted Leave in the 2016 referendum,

and parliament, the MPs who are trying to stop him

from fulfilling that.

The Liberal Democrats, on the other hand,

would run on a strongly pro-Remain platform, even

offer to rejoin the EU to avoid the impact of a no-deal Brexit.

And the Labour party?

Well, they would try to fight on domestic issues

because Brexit is a very complicated matter for them

because they don't want to lose the portion

of their Leave voters in the north and their Remain voters

in the cities.

So if we have that election the pollsters

say it would be inconclusive.

Nobody really knows who will be able to form

a government after that poll.

When the UK triggered Article 50 back in March 2017

it started a countdown clock until the UK leaves the EU.

The only way to stop that clock is

to delay or revoke Article 50.

The former prime minister Theresa May

delayed Article 50 twice.

But Mr Johnson has no intention of doing that.

He also has no intention of invoking Article 50.

So in this instance, unless another prime minister

steps into his place, then the UK

will be leaving at the end of October, regardless of what

MPs want to do about that.