Have the Tories given up?

When confronted with a list of problems and setbacks afflicting the Government, a minister recently told me: ‘The darkest hour is just before the dawn.’ I doubt she really believed it, which is just as well because, in a scientific sense at least, it turns out not to be true. But Tory ministers – aware of the party’s looming fate at the next election – are seeking such crumbs of comfort.

In recent weeks, there has been a tsunami of announcements from backbenchers and former ministers that they won’t be standing again. Unhelpful by-elections look set to confirm what many suspect: the Tories are heading for defeat, come the next election. The whips office meanwhile has apparently been on a go-slow – unwilling or unable to persuade Tory MPs on the Privileges Committee to call off their increasingly hysterical vendetta against any colleague who has ever criticised anything they have ever done.