There’s a new default conversation for Tory MPs at any Westminster drinks party: is this 1992 or 1997? Is the party doomed or not? In 1992 John Major became the only prime minister to have been 20 points behind in the polls and then gone on to win two years later. But in 1997, with the Tories mired in accusations of sleaze, Major lost by such a landslide that his party was out of power for three terms.
There are some Tory MPs who argue that a narrow victory would be worse than giving Labour a small majority
At last week’s cabinet away day, William Hague was brought in as the evening entertainment to make the case for optimism. The current situation, said Hague, more closely echoed the electoral landscape of 1990, when Major went on to turn the party’s fortunes around. If the Conservative party would only unite behind Rishi Sunak, he went on, they could win.
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