Former Tory minister tells Sunak to quit or face ‘electoral massacre’

Simon Clarke, who was a cabinet minister in Liz Truss’s short-lived government, urged Sunak to quit and make way for a new Tory leader.

Rishi Sunak

In yet another blow to Rishi Sunak, a former Tory minister has told the Prime Minister to quit or face an ‘electoral massacre’ at the general election.

Simon Clarke, who was a cabinet minister in Liz Truss’s short-lived government, urged Sunak to quit and make way for a new Tory leader.

In an op-ed for the Telegraph, Clarke slammed Sunak for his ‘uninspiring leadership’ as ‘the main obstacle to our recovery’ and wrote that he has “sadly gone from asset to anchor”.

His comments come after a YouGov poll found that just 20% of the public are planning to vote for the Tories. Meanwhile, the poll showed support for Labour at 47%, indicating that Keir Starmer’s party are on track for an unprecedented landslide when voters go to the polls.

Polling aggregator Stats for Lefties has made a projection on how the poll would be reflected in parliamentary seats if it were borne out in a general election. That projection has Labour winning a staggering 544 seats. The Tories would be the fourth largest party in parliament with just 14 MPs.

Clarke argued that Sunak “is leading the Conservatives into an election where we will be massacred” because “he does not get what Britain needs. And he is not listening to what the British people want.”

His comments also come after another Tory MP, Andrea Jenkyns, said that a steady stream of no-confidence letters had been submitted in Sunak and that she would be ‘very surprised if he’s taking us into the election’.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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