Sunak’s snap election looks like a calamitous error

Until yesterday there was a fair amount of goodwill towards Rishi Sunak amongst his colleagues. Tory parliamentarians would not have been happy with a defeat in an election forced upon the Prime Minister at the end of the year, but they might have understood it. Most MPs felt the PM had been dealt a dire hand by his two predecessors, that he had scored a few good recent wins, and even that he might be able to negate some of the worst damage if his stewardship of the economy and implementation of the Rwanda plan paid off. 

Sunak’s rain-splattered announcement changed everything. By bringing the election forward on a surprisingly brisk timeline Sunak has scuppered that sympathy. A minister texted me calling it ‘suicidal’. Tim Shipman of the Sunday Times has said the word ‘selfish’ keeps coming up. MPs are genuinely shocked, some angry that Sunak seems to have put ending his personal anguish in the job at the expense of the party.