Just six weeks after saying he'd "rather be dead in a ditch" than agree to request a Brexit extension, Boris Johnson last night was forced to do exactly that. Despite saying only hours before that he would not make the request.

Yesterday, the prime minister faced defeat in parliament after MPs voted in favour of the Letwin amendment, meaning Johnson would have to ask for an extension as per the provisions of the Benn Act, which was passed last month.

However, Johnson still maintained that he "will not negotiate a delay with the EU and neither does the law compel me to do so" in comments that caused outrage online.

Many disagreed, including - by the looks of things - the PM himself, once he thought about it.

A letter has now been sent to the president of the European Council Donald Tusk, requesting the extension as he is required to do.

Apparently, no one bothered to re-word it at all, pretty much copy-and-pasting straight from the Act.

Johnson didn't even sign it, saying it came from the UK’s Brussels representative Sir Tim Barrow - pretty much a technicality - possibly in anticpation of the inevitable but tasteless dead-in-a-ditch references now spreading across social media.

Johnson then sent Tusk a second letter confirming he didn't want an extension and claiming he can definitely pass all necessary legislation within the next 11 days and get his deal approved by parliament in order to leave the EU on 31 October.

Yes, this is as wildly unlikely as it sounds.

In the second letter, he wrote:

I have made clear since becoming prime minister - and made clear to parliament again today - my view, and the government’s position, that a further extension would damage the interests of the UK and our EU partners and the relationship between us.

We must bring this process to a conclusion so that we can move to the next phase and build our new relationship.

As many have pointed out, this is an absurd turn of events and the PM has been mercilessly mocked.

Out fate is now in the hands of the EU which needs to decide whether or not to grant the extension Johnson requested but doesn't want.

One wonders whether this is what Brexiteers had in mind by "taking back control"...

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