When will Sunak’s next deputy chair resign?

In the two months since Lee Anderson’s resignation as Tory deputy chairman, there’s been something of a vacancy at CCHQ. Who could fill the gap left by the red wall rottweiler, to motivate the grassroots and energise the base? Well now it seems we have our answer: Jonathan Gullis, a close friend of Anderson and a fellow stalwart of the Common Sense Group.

Gullis was last night handed Anderson’s old brief, with party chairman Richard Holden hailing him as ‘inimitable’ on Twitter/X, adding: ‘The non-stop campaigning MP for #StokeOnTrentNorth, #Kidsgrove and #Talke is a formidable addition to the team as we build to the General Election later this year.’ The new deputy chairman himself declared that:

I’m ready to take the fight to Sir Keir’s hopeless and hapless Labour Party. By sticking to the plan, we’ll grow the economy, stop the boats & level up across the country.

Gullis certainly does enjoy taking the fight to Starmer: he is one of the persistent hecklers of the Labour leader at Prime Minister’s Questions each week.