17 December 2023 , 22:44
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Ending the year more unpopular than Boris Johnson, battered and ridiculed Rishi Sunak is a zombie PM stumbling to near-inevitable final humiliation in 2024.
The timing of his date with destiny remains in Sunak’s gift, still, but the number of Conservative MPs who think they could win that election is vanishingly small.
Under assault from the Tory Party’s preposterous mafiosi Five Families and failing four of his own key five tests – waiting lists, growth, debt and boats definitely not stopped – it’s impossible to see why voters fed up with the Conservatives could suddenly start loving them over the next 12 months.
The richest PM in modern history is proving one of the worst. The continuing chaos is why Sunak’s YouGov unfavourability score of minus 49 is worse than Johnson’s -46 immediately after the Partygate liar’s enforced resignation.
Farewell to Sunak... his goose is cooked (PA) Labour’s acid-tongued Chris Bryant put it nicely at Prime Minister’s Questions in asking Sunak whether it was worse to lose WhatsApp messages as a “tech bro”; £11.8billion to fraud when Chancellor; presiding over history’s biggest fall in living standards; or desperately clinging on to power when he’s even more unpopular
than Johnson?
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The truth of the barb stung. One Tory former Minister observed that his party has had five Downing Street flops in seven years – Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak – and a sixth in eight probably couldn’t save them now. Damage limitation is the real goal as ambitious Ministers who fancy wearing a tarnished Tory crown after anticipated defeat jostle for position.
Penny Mordaunt, James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat are all viewed as runners before the starting gun is fired, with their loyal supporters quietly lobbying MPs.
Every man and woman for themselves – doing and saying what is in their own best interests – is a case of rats abandoning Sunak’s sinking ship.
Yet minimising Labour’s expected majority is a fool’s errand until Sunak recognises the country is most concerned about the economy and dire condition of the NHS, not the obsessions of hardline Tories – immigration and Rwanda.
Stalking the Conservatives as they collapse is Thatcherite chancer Nigel Farage, who requires them to lose heavily if he is to rejoin and reign supreme.
Sunak will try to enjoy his second Christmas in No 10 because it’ll be his last.