Rishi Sunak can still reverse this fiscal doom- spiral.

But bruising local election results and polls consistently showing a large double- digit Labour lead urgently signal there is no time to lose. At a conference in London, Tory traditionalists have been sending out highly charged warnings to Mr Sunak on a long list of vexed issues.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman called for tougher curbs on legal as well as illegal migration, which has soared since Brexit.

‘Red Wall’ Conservative MP Miriam Cates warned ‘cultural Marxism’ in schools is ‘destroying our children’s souls’.

Jacob Rees-Mogg criticised the PM for breaking his promise to complete a bonfire of remaining EU laws. And tomorrow Brexit champion Lord Frost will demand cuts to state spending and red tape.

The Mail echoes all of these concerns and trusts that Mr Sunak is listening.

He has done a good job of steadying the Tory ship after the self- harming defenestration of Boris Johnson and the ill-fated Truss/Kwarteng interregnum.

He must now give the electorate positive reasons to vote Tory. The horizon looks bleak, but there are bright spots. As Dominic Lawson pointed out in this paper yesterday, the polls have Mr Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer neck-and-neck on the question of who would make the better prime minister.

This shows the PM is currently more popular than his party unlike Sir Keir, whose constant reneging on policy pledges have made him appear deeply untrustworthy. It is a weakness Mr Sunak can and must exploit.

If he can focus on low-tax, small-state Tory values, get a grip on migration, reconnect with his grassroots and restore party unity, he still has a chance of election victory.

Should he fail, with Labour plans to give 16-year-olds and EU citizens the vote and the Lib Dems set to demand proportional representation as the price of a possible coalition, Brexit could be trashed and the Conservatives banished to the political wilderness for a generation.

If that horror story doesn’t concentrate Tory minds, nothing will.