Do Tory MPs really believe Rishi Sunak can win the election?

Could Rishi Sunak be about to win the next general election? That suggestion, made at Prime Minister’s Questions today by one of his backbenchers Bill Wiggin, was so unrealistic that the ministers sitting next to Sunak, including Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, couldn’t stop themselves from giggling. Mind you, Wiggin seemed to think that a primary factor in an election victory would be the number of potholes which had been repaired in his own constituency.

Wiggin’s question was one of many written with tomorrow’s local and mayoral elections in mind, and was probably more interesting than the exchanges between Sunak and Keir Starmer, for the simple reason that we have heard them almost word for word a number of times before.

The main piece of news was the defection of Dan Poulter from the Tories to Labour. Sunak said he was pleased to see Poulter in the Commons, which was a reference to the jibe from his party colleagues that he didn’t turn up very often.