Is it too late for Sunak to fall on his sword? Matthew Parris in Times

[Westfacing]

Matthew Parris is pondering whether the Tories could have another leader before the election!

A bit far-fetched... surely? But then again...

Is it too late for Sunak to fall on his sword? (thetimes.com)

So what?

The financial benefits for his wife's family must have been massive if they counterbalance the humiliation of being associated with such a failure of a world leader.

Don't former PMs usually bank on getting highly-paid speaking positions? Who will want to hear motivational speeches from Sunak (or Liz Truss??)?

Rish! is lined up to be a tech bro in California. Where the tax regime is so much better for the skin.

Hopefully he will follow the trajectory of the last major UK politician who did this and Sunak without trace like Clegg at Meta. Someone who you feel has a photo of him meeting Obama hanging behind him and a line in "When I met <insert name>" anecdotes he trots out for every new intake of influencers.

@SerendipityJane

agreed, and wont it be shame that the lasting image of the first Asian PM will be looking like a drowned rat outside Number 10

I despise him.
If I was a billionaire I would try to make the world a better place. He couldn't give a fuck about about us

Especially as there are so many more honourable and selfless examples to chose from.

The only silver lining is the one adjective that will be Sunaks legacy - the one single word that people will instantly identify him by - is "incompetent". His ethnicity will be a few words below that I am sure.

In much the same way we forget the UKs first Asian MP was elected 136 years ago

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-52829458

The conservatives are going to lose.

Im getting the feeling that Sunak is making massive mistakes so that after the election he will disappear, the conservatives and right wing press will put all the blame him for everything that went wrong.

Johnson, Reece Mogg and the rest of the charlatans then get a free pass to carry on as before. - if they manage to hold on to any of their seats.

The other option is Sunak knows they have the knives out for him and he's deliberately taking down the whole party with him.

The other option is Sunak knows they have the knives out for him and he's deliberately taking down the whole party with him.

I can believe that. I can see him having a little book with every single slight he has every experienced (real or imagined) tucked into his suit pocket. And that he is far more rigorous over it than the UK economy.

I think it will be a hung parliament. The Tories will cling on by a whisker. Sunak will resign.

He is just pissing in the paddling pool so that no one else can play in it either.

There is no avenue to a hung parliament.

I suppose he could just hide til July 4th so no one can ask him about D-Day? It worked for Johnson..

😂 Meanwhile here in the real world … Even Sunak’s given up on that one now.

Have you not seen the opinion polls? Even with huge margins of error, the Tories will not cling on by any whiskers!

@SerendipityJane , there are people who will only vote Tory.
There are people who dislike Labour or are afraid of tax hikes.
Parties like the Greens, SNP and LibDems will get a proportion of the votes.

The polls are showing Labour as likely to win. This will prompt some to vote for anyone but Labour.

It's not a forgone conclusion.

Hi Penny

Oi, I'm not Penny, I'm Fiftyquidnote to you.

Well, of course it isn't a foregone conclusion - nothing is.

But you're forgetting a few things:

• Tories are losing a lot of votes to Reform; their vote is being split in a way that has not happened before
• Labour and Lib Dem are both picking up votes from moderate Tories - the Tory party is by no means a homogenous blob of raving right wingers and it never was
• Tactical voting will cost the Tories more votes - this is already happening in Tory/Labour marginals and in Tory/Lib Dem marginals
• Although there will be shy Tories who will be loyal on the day, they will be fewer in number, and the number of Tory voters who stay home in disgust and do not vote at all will be higher than before
• Tory policies have enraged and engaged the young
• Tories have lost their advantage with the older age group; even among voters aged 70+, Labour have a 7 point lead.

No hung parliament. It's going to be a big Labour majority.

If you say so.

I think it’s a Labour decade if the polls are correct. It could also mean the Tories coming in third. That will really mean Britain is changing; particularly if you think that the most loyal Tory voters are those in their 70s now. I have never seen the UK with a Labour Liberal majority. It has always been small c.

I have never seen the UK with a Labour Liberal majority.

The LibLab pact ...

I agree. I suspect the Tory Party will cycle through harder and harder Right leaders, losing all their ' one nation' centre Right until they become Reform/ ukip. I'm not sure how many lost elections they will be able to take before they move more to the centre.

Worth remembering it's not really "The Reform Party". It's Reform Ltd, with Nigel as CEO and COO. When you pay you get zero say in anything. You don't get a say in policy, personnel or priorities. You probably also sign away a lot of consumer rights.

This. No elections to decide the leader, no local party deciding who to put forward for election.

@FilthyRich I agree. I know of quite a few very wealthy true blue tories who will not vote. Not even for the Lib Dems. Hate Farage so they’ll simply abstain.
British politics is so polarised and I say that as a long time labour voter 😂