More Tory MPs may echo Sir Simon Clarke’s calls for Rishi Sunak to quit as Prime Minister, but for now, the ex-Cabinet minister is in “no man’s land”, a Conservative Party insider has suggested.
Paul Goodman, editor of the Conservative Home website, suggested they may be reluctant to do so because they do not want to “take the blame” for what many fear will be a heavy defeat at the general election which is almost certain to take place later this year.
Launching his broadside in a comment piece in today’s Daily Telegraph, Sir Simon, who served in the Treasury while Mr Sunak was chancellor, said “extinction is a very real possibility” with him at the helm, adding: “The unvarnished truth is that Rishi Sunak is leading the Conservatives into an election where we will be massacred.”
However, his intervention has not sparked a mass rebellion, with high-profile Tories including Home Secretary James Cleverly, former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and One Nation Tory Tobias Ellwood among those publicly distancing themselves from the MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, who was one of 11 Conservative MPs who voted against the Prime Minister’s Rwanda Bill at its third reading earlier this month.
Mr Goodman, in an op-ed published on the website, said: “Sir Simon is a pleasant, capable, former member of Liz Truss’s Cabinet who is almost a Red Waller: that’s to say, he won his Teesside constituency from Labour in 2017 rather than 2019 and it isn’t, strictly speaking, a seat that the Conservatives have never held, at least in part.
“That he now faces the prospect of losing it will have been a factor in his decision – and one reading of his article is that the Prime Minister is paying a penalty for not bringing Sir Simon back to government (specifically) and neglecting the right in his promotions (generally).”
As for why Mr Clarke – Britain’s second-tallest MP, at 6 ft 7 – is currently isolated, with Dame Andrea Jenkyns the only other Tory MP to call for Mr Sunak to go, Mr Goodman speculated: “My impression is that more Tory MPs are considering whether to follow Sir Simon, but that he finds himself this morning alone in no man’s land, at least for the moment.
“For some on the right believe that Sunak should take the blame for what presently looks like the coming Conservative general election defeat. Why should we oust him, some say, and then shoulder all the blame?”
With Mr Sunak struggling to get his legislation through Parliament, any Tory leader who replaced Mr Sunak would likely find themselves restricted to promising action to stop the boats at the next general election, Mr Goodman suggested.
He added: “To which the most likely response of the voters would be: ‘yet more words’.
“If, that is, his or her new leadership itself long survived a panic-stricken and grudge-ridden leadership election.”
The net result could be yet another leadership contest, he claimed, explaining: “For the old military ethos of regimental loyalty, a product of the Parliamentary generations that followed World War Two, has long vanished.
“In these circumstances, one could reasonably expect, yes, another round of letters.
“Plus the further reduction of the Government’s already reduced majority as more Conservative MPs followed Nadine Dorries and Chris Skidmore’s lead – that’s to say, quitting the Commons altogether, so handing Labour the consequent by-elections.”
A minimum of 53 MPs are required to submit letters to the backbench 1922 Committee in order to trigger a confidence vote. Should Mr Sunak lose that, it would trigger a fifth Tory leadership contest in less than a decade.
Mr Cleverly said it would be “foolish” to have further dissent within the party, arguing that it would leave the door open to Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer.
Former defence secretary Ben Wallace dismissed Sir Simon’s call to oust Mr Sunak, saying “division and another PM would lead to the certain loss of power”.
