Tories teeter on the brink…

At the start of the week, it was an easy prediction to make. Liz Truss would be gone in weeks, possibly days. After the chaos of the vote on fracking on Wednesday, it was the latter. A wholly self-inflicted disaster, it is difficult to feel much sympathy for Truss or indeed the Tories as a whole for putting her in the position of PM in the first place.

And now, incredibly, we have a strong possibility of the resurrection of Boris Johnson. Political soap opera at its worst.

Tory Party continues to shrink in esteem…

Let’s just remind ourselves of Johnson’s past reign and why he had to resign. Caught regularly lying on a range of issues, covid parties, taking ‘corrupt’ money for decorating his Downing Street flat, losing ethics advisers, 60 ministers resigning at his behaviour forcing Johnson to quit. The list is endless and that is before his fundamental administrative chaos.

And think what happens if he wins the leadership a second time around? Does Hunt stay around as Chancellor? There is no love lost between them, and Johnson is a profligate spender who privately backed Truss. The talented Sunak will probably leave politics. The Right will remain in the ascendant. Relations with our largest trading partner, Europe, will continue to deteriorate. Several Tory MPs are threatening to quit forcing by-elections.

More chaos as the electorate recoil at another, this time discredited former PM, foisted on the country a second time by a tiny minority of Tory members. Johnson’s one saving grace is that he did have an original mandate from the 2019 GE but when he left office, 69% of the public and a majority of Tory voters wanted him gone.

Of course, Johnson is not Truss and that in itself might lead to a slight recovery in the polls. However, the longer-term answer is some thing like Sunak for PM, Hunt staying on in his role as Chancellor and Penny Mordaunt being made Foreign Secretary. It is not whether but only the scale of Tory electoral defeat being debated at the next GE and Johnson is no solution versus more talented colleagues who can rebuild the Party afterwards.

Common sense should prevail, and Johnson left on the backbenches to rack up millions in speaker fees. Meanwhile Prime Minister Sunak and Chancellor Hunt claw some reputation back for the Tories on the economy.

The problem is what do the Tories most lack collectively? Common sense. It could be a very depressing time for moderate voters as today’s Tory Party is lost to them.