Sunak’s caution could cost him the election

On the first day back after Christmas, Tory MPs were invited for welcome drinks in the Prime Minister’s parliamentary office. Rishi Sunak – a teetotaller – was not there. Instead, his Chief Whip hosted. Simon Hart told those present that drinks would be held fortnightly since ‘we are one big family, not a series of families’. He was referring to Mark Francois’s eyebrow-raising claim last month that groups of MPs (New Conservatives, the European Research Group, etc.) were the ‘five families’ of a Tory mafia.

The Rwanda Bill will return to the Commons next week, so there will be plenty of opportunity for blood feuds to resurface. But despite his gag, Hart didn’t spend much time trying to rally the party around the common aim of stopping the boats. Instead, he used his address to focus on what seems to be No. 10’s main message: that the economy’s fortunes are improving.