The Tory departy?

They look toast but Labour are still nervous

I HAD a couple of weeks off just after the Queen died, not as any mark of respect but because we have to use it up by the end of the year.

When I left, the country was still in that odd stage of shock and I thought it would be OK to disappear for a bit. Nothing much would happen, things would be a bit subdued, politics would gently flicker back into life.

How did that work out for you? What a couple of weeks that was. Over before it really started.

All of a sudden all those weird rumours about Truss being so bad that the government would collapse and Boris would sweep back in began to look vaguely credible.

Wipeout

Still can’t see it though, although Mr Sunak is back on manoeuvres, by all accounts. Strange position he finds himself in at the moment, like being an understudy in the world’s worst play.

It’s harder to think of a worse start to a job than the one Ms Truss has just had. Crashing the pound, terrible series of interviews on local radio, awful polling already. The Tories have gone from a delicately balanced next general election to facing a generational wipeout the next time they go to the polls.

It really is grim reading, if you are that way inclined. Pollsters Comres – for the first time in the history of Comres – put Labour 25 points clear.

Chris from Comres said: “If this played out at a general election, the Conservative Party could be pretty much wiped out and Labour would have such a commanding lead it could put the Conservatives out of power for generations.”

Quite the first couple of weeks. What does it mean for Labour? It should be pretty straightforward from now on in, no? To be honest the Labour people I’ve been speaking to are not as delighted as I thought they would be.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re happy. Big poll leads, government in disarray, policies cutting through – it’s all good.

But there’s a note of caution with everyone I’ve spoken to. I think it comes from being out of power for so long, the prospect of being in government is almost unbelievable. No one wants to do anything to jeopardise it. There’s a watchful mood around at the moment. Normally I would argue that this is the exact moment for Labour to be bold, to really pile the pressure on.

This low-key approach seems to have worked though. Well, done a bit more than worked well. Maybe this is the way to go for the foreseeable.

There are little worries though. One Labour staffer I was chatting with about the future said: “The thing is, if they can hang on and the election is not until late 2024, then things will inevitably be better. Economy will pick up, inflation drops, the war is over.

“If they can hang on, that is. “Maybe it would be better to just pile as much as we can on them now, hit them with policy, keep on and on at it, rather than just them unravel.

“There have been poll leads before – not as big as these – and we’ve seen them vanish. I don’t know, though. I don’t know.”

No one does. As I write this, Conor Burns just got sacked.

This is politics shifting by the second, no time for a holiday.