To cap a tumultuous and politically painful week for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his own brother quit his government post on Thursday, and will leave Parliament.

Jo Johnson said he was “torn between family loyalty and the national interest” because of his elder brother’s push to exit the European Union and “came to the conclusion that it was time for someone else to fill his shoes in Parliament and in government,” reports the Associated Press.

Jo Johnson, the brother of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, resigned abruptly from the British government, citing "unresolvable tension" between family loyalty and the "national interest" as turmoil surrounds Britain's attempt to leave the EU. https://t.co/legw9tDEBt

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 5, 2019

Only a day earlier, Boris Johnson took a licking on Brexit (“British Exit”), as the House of Commons passed a bill aimed at derailing his plan to leave the EU without a deal, which could sow chaos in Britain’s economy.

The bill would require the government to ask the EU to extend the deadline for Brexit from Oct. 31 to Jan. 31, perhaps allowing for an agreement to be hashed out.

The vote was 327-299, with 21 former members of Johnson’s own Conservative (Tory) Party joining the majority. Johnson tossed the rebels out of the party on Tuesday, following another Brexit-related vote that went against him.

The bill could still be defeated in the House of Lords, where pro-Brexit members might try to filibuster until time for a vote runs out, reports the Associated Press. EU supporters have more than 100 proposed amendments to deal with by next Tuesday, before Johnson suspends Parliament until November.

Also Wednesday, the House of Commons soundly defeated Johnson’s call for a snap general election Oct. 15. The proposal needed 434 votes to pass, and virtually all Labour members simply abstained — meaning it got fewer than 300. 

Whatever the outcome of all this, Britain’s political chaos, which began with a 2016 voter referendum approving Brexit, continues to grow.

Johnson appears to have caused the rupture in Tory ranks with an absurdist performance Tuesday night — calling opponents names and using a crude epithet rarely heard in Parliament — while making it clear he intends to carry out Brexit, “do or die,” whether an agreement with the EU can be reached by the Oct. 31 deadline, or not.

But the opposition Labour Party refuses to support the election proposal until the bill to block a no-deal Brexit becomes law. Labour leaders make it clear they don’t trust Johnson to hold the election as promised, suspecting he’ll push it closer to the deadline to limit Parliamentary debate.

“Wednesday’s events unfolded against a developing consensus among … Johnson’s opponents that he may have overplayed his hand through hardball tactics,” reports the New York Times.

“From suspending Parliament for five weeks to kicking out rebel Tories for voting against the government, Mr. Johnson has united disparate elements in the opposition and his own party against him,” the Times says.

Johnson has only been prime minister since July, prompting a politics professor at the University of Liverpool to tell the Washington Post that “It’s the shortest honeymoon in British political history,” adding that “Boris Johnson is in a terrible mess.”

“At least one person remains fully confident in Johnson,” the Post says. “In the Oval Office Wednesday, President Trump said: ‘He’s a friend of mine, and he’s going at it, there’s no question about it. Boris knows how to win. Don’t worry about him.’”