It was inevitable really, that after two more devastating by-election losses, nervous Tory MPs would want to cling to hope, any hope that they might survive the coming deluge, by yet again defenestrating their leader.
The Guardian reports that Tory MPs critical of Rishi Sunak’s leadership are hoping he will stand down voluntarily to avoid the spectacle of a damaging coup and are looking to May’s local elections as a potential crunch point.
A former minister said several Conservative MPs had contacted Graham Brady, who heads the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories, to say they want the prime minister to quit, but that they had not sent in letters of no confidence yet.
The former minister said they believed Sunak’s Downing Street was too complacent about the risk he faces after no new public challenges emerged after two heavy byelection defeats for the party this week.
“No 10 think they’re not in much trouble at all over a [leadership] challenge, which feels a bit arrogant,” they said.
“Quite a lot of moderate MPs now agree with the traditional anti-Rishi types to say that the best course of action is not for us to remove him, but for him to stand down voluntarily, and they’re speaking to Graham Brady about it. That’s why you’re not hearing much noise about it.
“I know it’s happening. The magnitude of it is difficult to say. It avoids the pain of removing a PM and might even prevent a protracted leadership contest, if one person emerges as a successor, like Rishi did.”
The situation was less like the removal of Boris Johnson, they said, than “a slower-motion and less contentious Liz Truss”. “It’s not that they think Rishi is terrible, like she was. But he’s had a go for 18 months and the plan isn’t working,” they said.
Quite what they think electing another Tory leader will achieve is unclear. After all, anybody assuming the mantle would only have a few months to make their mark and no time at all to bring together the half-a-dozen factions the Tory party has split into, even if that is possible.
I have a better idea, let's have a general election in May instead and put this Tory government out of their misery once and for all.
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