Tory MPs can dare to dream about the next election

Were you a centre-right leader seeking the perfect person to condemn you for implementing a mildly populist measure then a harrumphing Al Gore would surely be about as good as it gets. To have this cold fish, liberal left American jet-setter – known for excusing his own giant carbon footprint on grounds that he purchases ‘offsets’ – leading the elite outcry against his climate change speech must count as a major win for Rishi Sunak.

Gore described Sunak’s policy shift as ‘shocking’ and ‘really disappointing’. He claimed that friends of his in the UK Conservative party were privately expressing their ‘utter disgust’ about the move.

As a bullseye in upsetting all the right people, Sunak’s pragmatic shift away from certain very intrusive net zero measures has eclipsed even Boris Johnson’s famous prorogation of parliament in autumn 2019. The rage of Gore – and his British counterparts such as Zac Goldsmith – is likely to help earn Sunak a hearing among the millions of deeply disenchanted habitual Tory voters whose behaviour will be crucial to the outcome of the next general election.