Trussed up? Door to No 10 opens wide as Sunak hopes for a miracle

Rishi Sunak’s supporters are understandably glum, but one thing alone means they have not totally given up hope of defeating Liz Truss in the race to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative party leader and prime minister.

- Rowena Mason

“We’re crossing our fingers for a game changing gaffe,” says one Tory MP who is supporting Sunak after initially backing another candidate.

With the result of the ballot of Tory members to be announced on 6 September, John Curtice, the polling expert from Strathclyde University, put Sunak’s chances of victory at just 5%, saying Truss was almost sure to win unless she “fouls up in some spectacular fashion” in the final stages of the contest.

Many Conservative members have already cast their votes, which cannot be changed before the 2 September deadline. However, that does not stop Truss’s diehard Tory opponents from engaging in some wishful thinking about an error so huge that she has to withdraw.