Can Rishi Sunak win back the Tory backbenches?

It’s not going to be an easy autumn for the Tories, which is why the top brass have started holding meetings with nervous backbenchers to try to allay their fears about tax rises and other politically difficult decisions which are looming. Rishi Sunak also clearly saw the value in ensuring the public was aware he was taking their concerns about these matters seriously when he accidentally on purpose revealed his lines for one of these briefings as he walked along Downing Street.

Sunak’s message yesterday afternoon when he and Boris Johnson spoke to the 2019 intake of Conservative MPs was very much ‘you need to trust us’, according to those present. One MP said that ‘it was sombre but what we needed to hear. We left under no doubt that there will be difficult times ahead.’

One of the reasons the Chancellor and Prime Minister have focused particularly on the newest MPs is that they are a brittle bunch, many of them representing seats they are nervous about being able to hold as the first ever Tory incumbents.