Deluded rebels are not doing party or nation any favours

‘They should be focusing on the party's inherent advantages’

- Esther Krakue

VOTERS awoke yesterday to calls for Rishi Sunak's resignation but from his own party rather than, as is more customary, the Opposition. Conservative MP Simon Clarke claimed the PM was leading the Tories into an election "where we will be massacred".

His constituents aside, I suspect most people hadn't heard of Mr Clarke until his explosive intervention. And while I'm sure his 15 minutes of fame won't do any harm to his chances of picking up a couple of lucrative post-election quango roles or directorships, you really have to wonder at the former minister's thinking.

Has there ever been such a gang of self-indulgent, self-serving politicians, hell-bent on destroying what is left of the Conservative party? The fact that these rebels, in their self-righteous delusion, believe they are doing the party a favour is even more unbelievable.

With these antics, the likes of Mr Clarke and his colleague, ex-education minister Andrea Jenkyns, who submitted a letter of no confidence in the PM in November, should save us the trouble of voting and hand the keys to No10 Downing Street to Keir Starmer now.

I am sure Mr Clarke is fuelled by the very real prospect of the Tories spending the next decade in opposition. But I hate to break it to him: you already are.