They may have given us five prime ministers in less than ten years, warned by one of their key polling gurus that divided parties seldom win elections, and be less than a year away before the next General Election – but there is talk in the Westminster bubble and beyond of a plot to remove yet another Tory leader, as the polls remain stubbornly stuck, showing the Labour party between 20-25 points ahead of the government.
When former cabinet member Sir Simon Clarke published an article earlier this week suggesting that Rishi Sunak should go to save the Conservatives from electoral obliteration, it seemed that he was acting as a ‘lone assassin’. However, it has now emerged that an Aide to the PM has quit his post and joined an effort to oust his former boss, warning that the Tories could be destroyed by Christmas.
Will Dry, a special adviser responsible for polling and opinion research at Number 10 resigned in November and is reported to have joined a group of Conservatives who are said to be looking to replace Sunak with the sixth Tory leader in eight years – the fourth in this parliament!
Another former cabinet member, David Gauke, has suggested that Simon Clarke’s attack, and presumably the efforts of Dry and his unnamed colleagues, has more to do with pinning the blame on Sunak for what is seen by many in the party as an inevitable Labour victory.
However, such is the febrile atmosphere of the modern-day Conservative Party, it would be a brave person who would bet on Sunak surviving continuing flatlining in the polls, by-election defeats over the next few months, and heavy losses in the local elections in May.
And even if he did survive, and potentially squeak an unlikely General Election win – how long into a new parliament would a man who was never wanted by his MPs and membership in the first place, realistically survive?
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Frank Mckenna and Jim Hancock discuss the future of Rishi Sunak
