With little more than two weeks before Britons are presented with a new Conservative party leader and, ipso facto — with the Queen’s consent — prime minister, parliamentarians in thrall to the European Union are becoming desperate in their attempts to stymie their own country’s independence.

Their latest gambit is a veiled threat to paralyse the new premier’s agenda, if Britain’s “re-opened” negotiations with Brussels come to nought and a “no deal” Brexit becomes official Government policy.

These solons are seemingly oblivious that, regardless of who takes up residence in Downing Street, the UK leaving the EU, with or without a deal, is the default position by dint of law, legislation having been passed with clear majorities in Parliament to leave, no “ifs,” “ands,” or “buts.”

This obliviousness has legs only because the outgoing Prime Minister, Theresa May, wheedled extensions to the original March 29 deadline. Not surprisingly, these recalcitrant Remainers reside on the Government benches, too: “conscientious” Conservatives all.

The UK’s supineness to the EU has nigh scuppered the electoral future of the Tory party. Its officials have put the interests of European comity before the British people, time and again. Even now, at the eleventh hour, it’s difficult to discern the extent of sincerity in respect of Brexit.

With varying degrees of consistency, both Tory candidates for Downing Street, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, have committed to renegotiating with the EU for better withdrawal terms than those achieved by their predecessor.

For its part, Brussels is non-responsive. Its officials claim there is only one deal on offer. Regardless, if no improved deal with Brussels is forthcoming, each man vows to leave on October 31.

The Remainer “fifth column” at Westminster just won’t have it. Whether through frustrating Government business to belabor the calamity of a “clean break” from the EU, or bringing down their minority Government on a confidence motion — regardless of the real possibility that Conservatives will be supplanted by a socialist Labor administration, whose leader, Jeremy Corbyn, the London Spectator reports, has just written to party members to say that Labor would “campaign for Remain against either No Deal or a Tory deal.”

So wherein do these Tory — again, Tory — Remainers find the gall to thumb their noses at their Brexit-loving constituents? Sadly, in the Conservative leadership candidates themselves.

By couching their Brexit platitudes in a “better deal or no deal” mantra, Messrs. Johnson and Hunt give opponents the opportunity to play upon fears of imminent economic collapse. Alert to any weakness, Remainers’ objective is to extort the eventual premier to step away from the “no deal” precipice and agree, in lieu of the alternative, to a compromise.

By trying to placate all camps and unite the party and the country behind him, the leading candidate, Mr. Johnson, gives the game away. In an exclusive essay for Brexit Central, he suggests that the “no deal” scenario is a “serious” tactic toward “a more optimistic, dynamic approach to these negotiations.”

At the same time, absent a deal, BoJo boasts that “we will be match fit for No Deal,” with “the fiscal firepower to support business and agriculture” — on the campaign trail, he muses aloud about withholding the £39 billion “severance” fee — and “free to substantially diverge on tax and regulation.”

“We voted to leave and leave we will,” Boris exclaims. He is at his best and most convincing when extolling the benefits of British independence. But then there is “statesman” Boris, hedging his bets, talking up his negotiating prowess.

It is why, as Melanie Phillips explains, “Brexiteers don’t trust Johnson to deliver Brexit.” Perhaps he’s paying requisite homage to political rituals of statecraft, to win over Brexit waverers. Or he’s deaf to what Brussels itself is saying about further meetings and thinks he can outmanoeuver the bureaucrats.

Either way, Boris comes off as disingenuous or incredulous. Ms. Phillips no doubt speaks for the majority when she writes, “I’m not sure which is worse.”

Worryingly, this has been his approach to Brexit from the time he resigned from Cabinet over the Chequers plan. Is Boris’s “no deal” encomium heartfelt or merely a failing “feint” for Brussels?

Britons can believe, however, Mr. Johnson’s assessment what continued failure to leave the European Union by the October 31 deadline means, not only for Britain, but for the Conservative party as well. Boris is blunt: “Kick the can and we kick the bucket.”