Dismal last days of deranged Tory mob

TO watch up close the UK Conservative Government fall to bits is to witness an arrogant, incompetent and frankly increasingly deranged mob trash the house on their way out.

I do not know a single Tory MP, and I speak to enough of them, who in their heart of hearts believes they will win the general election later this year.

Most, I reckon, think they’re lumbered with useless Rishi Sunak and it would, as ex-Cabinet ministers Jacob Rees-Mogg and David Davis admitted, be “mad” and “bonkers” to try to foist a fourth Prime Minister on the country since 2019.

But that won’t stop some trying, as a group of desperate right-wing chancers who wrote off Penny Mordaunt as lazy and vacuous now plot for her to be their unlikely saviour.

Scared Sunak’s denied us a general election on May 2 but heavy Tory local election losses on that date could be the PM’s day of destiny, with pressure intensifying to replace him if the likes of West Midlands Mayor Andy Street and controversy-hit Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen, Baron Houchen of High Leven, get the boot.

And while the Conservatives fight viciously like rats in a sack, the country goes to the dogs.

Britain is in recession with no ambitious growth plan to raise living standards while key public services, particularly the precious NHS and vital judicial system, are suffering grievously. Downing Street needs the election, when it comes, to be a contest with Labour rather than a referendum on Sunak and a party in office for 14 years.

Starmer, with the unintended assistance of warring Tories, is keeping this battle focused at the moment on the decaying Tories. Labour playing it safe rather than radical is a winning strategy so far.

Change is the most irresistible momentum in politics and it is undoubtedly with rejuvenated Labour. The one valid point I’ve heard from Sunak and senior Conservatives is a vote for Nigel Farage’s hard-right anti-migrant Reform UK will help Starmer and Labour. It’s true. Not that disaffected, disillusioned 2019 Tories defecting to Reform care a hoot.

The last time Labour replaced the Conservatives, in 1997, it sang that things can only get better.

In 2024 it’s possible they may get even worse for Conservatives already fearing a hammering.