Sunak won’t be much help to the Scottish Tories

The first few days of this general election campaign have been characterised by Rishi Sunak’s dismal campaign management. From wet suits and sinking ships, his whistlestop tour of the four nations seemed more like a box-ticking exercise than anything else.

A prime minister from the Conservative and Unionist party must find some way to appeal to Northern Ireland and Scotland, the two parts of that union which in the longer term still represent a realistic flight risk. It was, however, hard not to reflect on Sunak’s irrelevance in these parts of the UK. Irrelevant in Northern Ireland because the party – making up less than 1 per cent of the vote – effectively does not participate. And the UK prime minister is irrelevant in Scotland because the battle ahead of his Scottish counterpart Douglas Ross and his party bears almost no resemblance to the fight facing Sunak.