The Conservative Crack-Up

The Tory party is preparing for life in opposition. This will be a wild ride, but not always a pretty one.

The opinion polls continue - stubbornly - to suggest Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party enjoys a 10 to 15 point lead over Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives. Actually, this isn’t quite true. The general public still does not have a very clear or coherent idea of Sunak beyond the fact he is rich, smooth, hard-working, and, probably, far from the worst kind of Tory. Above all he is not Liz or Boris or Theresa. This is a start but it is not enough. Sunak leads the Conservative party but it is not his party nearly so much as it remains the party of his predecessors, each of whom in their different ways, exhausted public patience. Sunak therefore seems a kind of caretaker manager; in charge but lacking a sense of direction or permanence. The team he leads is not really thought of as being his team.

Voters are rendering a judgement on 14 years of Conservative government. Time is Labour’s best pal in the present circumstances and even if the ghosts of 1992 concentrate minds at Labour HQ, it is difficu…