Kevin Schofield is Politics Editor of HuffPost UK.
The former prime minister spent last weekend phoning round the 175 former Tory MPs who lost their seats at the election.“He felt it was the right thing to do,” one Sunak ally told HuffPost UK. “He feels a personal responsibility for all those who lost their seats.
But the former PM’s warm words have cut little ice with many in the party, who blame him for the disaster which befell them on July 4 asSome of his most trenchant critics attended the Popular Conservatism conference in Westminster earlier this week, where the likes ofCriticism of the former PM is not just confined to those on the Tory right, however.
That was disputed by one Sunak adviser, who said the calculation inside No.10 was that, to paraphrase D:Ream’s New Labour anthem, things could only get worse the longer he hung on. Sunak has said he will stay on until the mechanism for choosing his successor is decided, which suggests that an interim leader may have to be appointed to mind the shop until a permanent one is elected.“After leading us to our worst defeat ever, the least he can day is stay on as leader for a few more months to help steady the ship,” said one MP.
Outside the room, however, party grandee Sir Edward Leigh - newly installed as the Father of the House of Commons as its longest-serving male MP - was clear about the direction he believed the party should be heading in. “We need to have a proper leadership election now, and whoever becomes leader must articulate this point of view. Unless we bring back those Reform people we are doomed to failure.”But another Tory MP told HuffPost UK that the party’s problems could not simply be solved by a leap to the right.
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