Rishi Sunak has been Prime Minister for nigh on a year and a half now, and for some Conservative MPs that’s just too long. Having forgotten the tumultuous road from Johnson to Sunak via truss, some in the Tory party are intent on ousting Rishi Sunak ahead of the next election.
It is unclear who the rebels are, but according to the Independent, the party is once again in turmoil as MPs have “met and held talks about ‘coronating’ [Penny] Mordaunt as prime minister.”
Speaking on Times Radio this morning, former defence secretary Ben Wallace said that it was too late to change leader this close to the election: “There comes a moment in time in the electoral cycle where you effectively put on your best suit, you stand up and you march towards the sound of the guns and you get on with it.”
Those fearing the guns are exactly the ones hoping to shift Sunak for some unnamed saviour, fearing that Sunak hasn’t managed to change the party’s fortunes.
Wallace continued: “Rishi Sunak is the Prime Minister. He set out his plan. He set out his idea and vision, which I think is to effectively, quite rightly, fix the economy, get inflation down. If we get inflation down, we can see interest rates drop.”
“Whether colleagues are happy with him or not, it’s too late, right. Get on with it. Stand up. And you know, at some stage this year, commit to engage in the general election and put our best case forward. There is no other alternative. And that’s just the reality of it.”
Wallace was speaking after Kemi Badenoch had ordered the dissenting rebels speaking to regicide to “stop messing around and get behind the Prime Minister”.
The business secretary told the BBC: “I’m sure if Penny was here she would be distancing herself from those comments.
“I’ve been saying for a long time that the small minority of MPs who think that this is something to be talking about should stop it.”
She added: “I don’t think there is very much to these rumours… We need to make sure one or two MPs cannot dominate the news narrative when 350 plus MPs have different views.”
As yet, only Simon Clarke MP and Andrea Jenkyns MP have come out publicly against Sunak. Clarke’s Telegraph op-ed back in January arguing that the Tories would face electoral wipeout should they stick with Sunak sparked much controversy. As for Jenkyns, referring to the rumours, just last week she said: “Having spoken with lots of my colleagues, no one seems to have heard or been pushing for such a thing!”
Will the plotters heed the advice of Wallace and Badenoch? Don’t hold your breath.
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