Change voters' opinions, not the leader yet again

DESPERATE times call for desperate measures. That is the view of former Cabinet minister Sir Simon Clarke who believes that the answer to the Tories' collapse in popularity is another bout of in-fighting.

- Leo McKinstry

Warning that, without drastic action, his party faces a massacre at the General Election, Sir Simon yesterday called for the resignation of Rishi Sunak, followed by a leadership contest to choose the next Prime Minister.

Sir Simon justified his call with a ferocious assault on Sunak's capacity for the top job, denouncing his "uninspiring leadership" and his inability to understand what "Britain needs" or the "public wants". This criticism was backed up by references to a huge poll of 14,000 voters which reportedly showed that an alternative, unnamed new Conservative leader could beat Sir Keir Starmer.

Sir Simon is certainly right to say that the current position of the Tories is dire.

Crushed by record-breaking margins in a string of recent byelections, their support has fallen to just 20%. But the idea that the solution lies in dumping Sunak is a deluded fantasy brought on by a mixture of panic and wishful thinking.