Rishi Sunak news – live: Tory civil war as Johnson ally warns party faces election massacre unless PM ousted
A former Cabinet ally of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss has claimed that the Conservative Party could face “extinction” unless Rishi Sunak resigns as prime minister, as the simmering Tory civil war boils over into public view.
Simon Clarke, who served in the Treasury under Mr Sunak, made the intervention in the Daily Telegraph to urge his colleagues to sack the PM ahead of the looming general election, arguing that he “has sadly gone from asset to anchor”.
In calls that would see the Tories elect the country’s fourth prime minister in just 18 months, Mr Clarke alleged that Mr Sunak’s “uninspiring leadership is the main obstacle to our recovery”, as the Conservatives languish 20 points behind Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour in the polls.
It marks another blow to the prime minister’s authority after some 60 Conservatives rebelled to back an amendment to his flagship Rwanda policy.
But in a sign that Mr Clarke’s is merely the first public attack by right-wing Tories plotting the PM’s demise, fellow Johnson loyalist Nadine Dorries responded to the news by saying: “And we’re off.”
