The irresistible force meets the movable object?
Like Adam Drummond my attention was first drawn to the ratings of Liz Truss. I’ve never taken drugs but the Liz Truss premiership is what I’ve imagine an acid trip would feel like but I digress.
The thing that also should be noted is just how bad Sunak is doing compared to major party leaders elected since 2010 who lasted more than 49 days whereas Starmer is doing better than Corbyn and Miliband at the equivalent stage.
In the last week we’ve had polls showing Labour on course for a majority of 420 and 396 and the Tories down to 43 and 52 seats. With a bit of anti Tory tactical voting it isn’t impossible to see how those polls could lead the Tories to being the fourth largest party in the next parliament with either the Lib Dems or the SNP becoming the official opposition.
With mortgage costs even higher than under the reign of Liz Truss have the Tories replaced one duffer for another duffer? I wonder if a tipping point on the 21st of July? The Sunday Times are reporting that
Voters go to the polls on July 20 in Uxbridge and South Ruislip and Selby and Ainsty, where Boris Johnson and his ally Nigel Adams have resigned, as well as Somerton and Frome, where David Warburton quit after being photographed with what looked like cocaine. It has been dubbed “B-Day” by sarcastic backbenchers who think three losses would flush fading Tory hopes for the general election down the lavatory.
After nine months in charge, in which the prime minister has been a positive asset with approval ratings up to 20 points ahead of his party, three focus groups last week in the three by-election seats show that the Conservative leader has lost his lustre and could even be part of the problem for the Tories.
Luke Tryl, a former Tory adviser who conducted the focus groups for the campaign group More in Common, said they were the worst reception he had seen for Sunak since spring last year when it emerged that his wife, Akshata Murty, was non-domiciled for tax purposes. The voters in the groups were selected to mirror the political balance of the seats in 2019, with a Conservative majority…
…Voters see Sunak, whose net worth with his wife is calculated at £529 million in The Sunday Times Rich List, as out of touch with the concerns and privations of ordinary people. Indeed, the crisis seems almost designed to emphasise Sunak’s greatest political weaknesses. Samantha, 39, a teacher from Somerton and Frome who has had to take on a second job to pay the bills, said: “It’s hard having such a rich man in charge of your country when your country is, and the people in your country are, kind of falling apart. It makes him very unrelatable.”…
…Sunak’s recent comment that “we’ve got to hold our nerve” over inflation — which aides insist was an instruction to the government rather than to voters struggling to pay their mortgages — has gone down badly.
Jamie from Uxbridge accused Sunak of “telling everyone to hold their nerve while he is sitting high and mighty getting his butler to do what he wants for him”.
Sunak sold himself to the public as a serious figure who could deliver meaningful improvements to the economy, NHS and immigration, urging voters to judge him on actions not words. But all five of his pledges are looking elusive and the focus groups suggest that voters see him as powerless to deliver.
I wonder if Sunak loses all three by elections Tory MPs might look at ousting him. Ladbrokes have some odds on Sunak being ousted this year and not being Tory leader at the next election.
Sunak needs to turns things around or he might be the one flushed away. 2022 has shown Tory MPs have no issues in rapidly removing poorly performing Prime Ministers. Sunak increasingly looks like a moveable object.
TSE