Top Tories warn scrapping Sunak would lead to ‘certain loss of power’
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Top Tories have rejected calls by Sir Simon Clarke for Rishi Sunak to be replaced as Prime Minister, warning it would lead to “division” and the “certain loss of power”.
Writing in the Telegraph, former Liz Truss-era minister Sir Simon Clarke warned against Sunak leading the party into an election, suggesting “extinction is a very real possibility”.
Clarke wrote: “The unvarnished truth is that Rishi Sunak is leading the Conservatives into an election where we will be massacred.”
And he later wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I am speaking out because the stakes for our country and my party are too high to stay silent.”
But a raft of senior Conservatives have rejected Clarke’s attempt to oust Sunak.
Tobias Ellwood told Times Radio the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP was “throwing his teddies in the corner” and is “out of sync” with the rest of the party. He added: “This is self-indulgent, it’s reckless and it’s defeatist.”
While business minister Kevin Hollinrake also told the radio station that he “didn’t agree” with Clarke’s call, and insisted Sunak was an electoral asset to the Conservatives.
Hollinrake added: “The majority of people are undecided who to vote for… of course some people panic at a difficult time but this is not the overwhelming view of the party.”
Former defence secretary Ben Wallace also dismissed Clarke’s Telegraph op-ed, saying “division and another Prime Minister would lead to the certain loss of power”.
Sir David Davis, a previous Brexit secretary, said: “The party and the country are sick and tired of MPs putting their own leadership ambitions ahead of the UK’s best interests.”
While Boris Johnson-era home secretary Dame Priti Patel stressed: “Engaging in facile and divisive self-indulgence only serves our opponents: it’s time to unite and get on with the job.”
Truss, a close ally of Clarke, has also let it be known she does not back his intervention, according to the PA Media news agency.
Clarke hit back at detractors, posting on X: “Every Conservative MP will need to live with the decision they make in the coming days for the rest of their lives.
“Failing to act would itself represent a decision. Look at the polls. Personal insults don’t change the facts. I have no further comment to make.”
Two MPs – Clarke and former education minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns – are the only Tory MPs to have publicly called for Sunak to go.
This is well short of the 53 MPs needed to submit letters to the backbench 1922 Committee to trigger a vote of no confidence.
Labour’s Pat McFadden said getting rid of the Conservatives’ “circular firing squad” would be “liberating the British people from endless bouts of Tory infighting”.
While Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper branded the row “utterly ludicrous” and said voters were “sick and tired of this never-ending Conservative Party soap opera”.