PM Sunak, Hill notes, “entered Downing Street after one of the weakest prime ministers in modern history” when he succeeded Truss, and “didn’t really have a mandate for any kind of ideological program or policy program” beyond sorting out the crisis that erupted under her short leadership.
“Into that void, the various factions are stepping up,” he says — all of them aiming to shape the Tory debate over the next decade.
For his part, Littlewood insists that the PopCons are not trying to push Sunak out of power before the election, and warns another leadership election for the Tories would be “madness.”
But Maguire, the JL Partners pollster, says the launch of the PopCons is nevertheless a “very public display of disunity,” even if those involved aren’t directly criticizing the prime minister.
“By putting these things forward, they are saying they feel like the current administration is doing a bad job … and that, I think, is just the most damaging thing when you look at public opinion on this,” she adds.
Centrist Tories, meanwhile, despair at the sight of colleagues trying to hammer out their disagreements in public.