Rishi Sunak said this week he’s putting UK defence spending on a “war footing.” He might as well have been talking about his own position.
Allies of the UK PM described the last few days as him entering campaign mode for a general election he must call by the end of Jan. A plan to tighten rules for welfare payments, ramming his flagship policy to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda through parliament and a pledge to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030 all secured newspaper front-page coverage.
An aide characterised the tempo shift as “Operation Save Rishi” ahead of a more immediate test, as the Conservative Party gears up for local council and mayoral elections Thursday. Sunak’s internal Tory critics have warned that any result suggesting the opposition Labour Party is marching to office would trigger efforts to oust him. The recent flurry of activity was in part about getting Sunak through next week without a leadership challenge, members of his team said on condition of anonymity.
The Tories are defending just under 1,000 seats from the last vote in 2021, when the party was boosted by the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine. The party’s national support has slumped since, and Labour’s 20-point lead in the polls could translate to a loss of half of those seats. Yet there’s even more focus on the outcome of two mayoral races, in the West Midlands and Tees Valley in northern England, where Tories Andy Street and Ben Houchen are battling to stay in their roles. Both are seen as a figureheads for recent Conservative inroads into traditional Labour areas, and losing both would be seen by many in the party as a bellwether for a national defeat. A group of Tories, who claim to have been gathering support for a leadership change, are waiting for a moment to act. They are proposing House of Commons member Penny Mordaunt as their preferred candidate, and are sharing polling with other MPs showing she’s viewed favourably by public. But a Mordaunt ally said she wouldn’t quit after May 2 votes or call for leadership change, a position that appears to bolster Sunak’s position.
Allies of the UK PM described the last few days as him entering campaign mode for a general election he must call by the end of Jan. A plan to tighten rules for welfare payments, ramming his flagship policy to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda through parliament and a pledge to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030 all secured newspaper front-page coverage.
An aide characterised the tempo shift as “Operation Save Rishi” ahead of a more immediate test, as the Conservative Party gears up for local council and mayoral elections Thursday. Sunak’s internal Tory critics have warned that any result suggesting the opposition Labour Party is marching to office would trigger efforts to oust him. The recent flurry of activity was in part about getting Sunak through next week without a leadership challenge, members of his team said on condition of anonymity.
The Tories are defending just under 1,000 seats from the last vote in 2021, when the party was boosted by the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine. The party’s national support has slumped since, and Labour’s 20-point lead in the polls could translate to a loss of half of those seats. Yet there’s even more focus on the outcome of two mayoral races, in the West Midlands and Tees Valley in northern England, where Tories Andy Street and Ben Houchen are battling to stay in their roles. Both are seen as a figureheads for recent Conservative inroads into traditional Labour areas, and losing both would be seen by many in the party as a bellwether for a national defeat. A group of Tories, who claim to have been gathering support for a leadership change, are waiting for a moment to act. They are proposing House of Commons member Penny Mordaunt as their preferred candidate, and are sharing polling with other MPs showing she’s viewed favourably by public. But a Mordaunt ally said she wouldn’t quit after May 2 votes or call for leadership change, a position that appears to bolster Sunak’s position.