Nightmare week for the Prime Minister
The Commons isn’t sitting this week, which traditionally allows the UK government to set the agenda.
In theory, parliamentary recess should be a time where Downing Street can take control of the narrative, garnering some much needed positive headlines.
For Rishi Sunak, however, the night is dark and full of terrors, with Rwanda debates, new statistics and by-elections all banana skins which could encourage Tory MPS to once again call for a new leader.
Up first is his controversial Rwanda scheme, which faces a thorough pasting in the House of Lords.
The Prime Minister then faces an hour-long question-andanswer session with a live audience of GB News viewers, where The Scotsman has been told he could be asked “anything”. Last week his offthe-cuff responses involved him agreeing a £1,000 bet on deportations and mocking Sir Keir Starmer’s trans policy in front of Brianna Ghey's mother, so it’s fair to say he’s not been the best at thinking on his feet.
Wednesday is where things could really get slippery, with the latest inflation statistics being published.
The economy raises further headaches on Thursday, when GDP figures are published by the Office for National Statistics. With the economy shrinking between July and September, the figures for quarter four will reveal if the UK has hit a recession.
Most damaging of all to the Prime Minister, also on Thursday, are the two byelections. Taking place in the theoretically safe Tory seats of Wellingborough and Kingswood, reports over the weekend suggested party bosses had given up on campaigning, preferring to save money to win them back in a general election.
This all comes in the backdrop of a new Survation poll that forecasts of the Tories 100 rural seats, 51 will go to Labour at the election. It’s never easy for Mr Sunak, with every week seemingly bringing fresh peril.