THE Tories descended further into turmoil today as its hard right launched fresh plots against drifting premier Rishi Sunak.
Former cabinet member David Davis remarked “this is getting silly” after one-time levelling up secretary Simon Clarke called on the Prime Minister to quit.
While few other Tories were prepared to put their heads above the parapet so brazenly, the prospect of a fourth leader in two years was being canvassed in the Commons tea rooms.
The infighting has been turbocharged by a detailed opinion poll apparently organised by hard right peer Lord David Frost showing the Tories risk a 1997-style wipe-out at the next general election.
Lord Frost and his supporters spun the poll as evidence that only another shift to the right could avoid electoral disaster.
Mr Clarke followed up today with an article urging his fellow Tories to act to install a leader who would follow an aggressively right-wing policy on migration, the economy and “culture war” issues.
He was apparently isolated today, with even the hard-right ex-home secretary Priti Patel accusing him of “facile and divisive self-indulgence.”
But he is scheduled to share a platform with former premier Liz Truss early next month, launching a new grouping called Popular Conservatism.
They are set to be joined by another right-wing cabinet exile, Jacob Rees-Mogg.
In his article Mr Clarke called for a leader who would implement radical “supply-side reforms,” apparently forgetting that when the country had one such in Ms Truss the outcome was immediate economic calamity.
He warned that the risks of not acting against Mr Sunak outweighed the embarrassment of embarking on yet another leadership election.
The only other MP to have publicly written to the backbench 1922 Committee expressing no confidence in Mr Sunak — the formal Tory procedure — is Andrea Jenkyns.
She is a fringe hard-right figure best known for making an obscene gesture at protesters as she left Downing Street during a brief tenure as an education minister.
However, it is believed that more MPs have submitted letters without making a public song-and-dance about it.
Another icon of the Tory right, former party deputy chair Lee Anderson, begged for his job back today.
Like Mr Clarke, Mr Anderson rebelled last week against the government’s Bill to deport refugees to Rwanda, regarding it as not tough enough.
But the populist presenter on GB News was apparently repentant today.
The Prime Minister’s press secretary however emphasised “we have a lot of time for” Mr Anderson who is seen as important to secure Mr Sunak’s right flank against the Farageist Reform UK party.
In Commons exchanges Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the Prime Minister of laughing at a member of the public asking about NHS waiting lists, to which Mr Sunak responded by suggesting Sir Keir did not know what a woman is. He followed up the allegation up by saying Sir Keir made policy by “licking his finger, sticking it in the air and seeing which way the wind is blowing.”
