Those waiting for the local election results before they look for evidence of Rishi Sunak’s fightback are running late: the Prime Minister has spent the past few weeks making announcements designed to keep his party happy and remind them that they’re supposed to be fighting Labour, not one another. There’s the defence spending announcement, the benefits crackdown, and the passing of the Safety of Rwanda Act. None of these are without risk: the plotters have already demanded even higher defence spending, for instance.
Both sides seem to be holding out for the other to fold
One of the demands it’s reasonably safe to say Sunak isn’t going to give into is ending the junior doctors’ pay dispute by making a 10-12 per cent offer (currently the government has said 8.8 per cent and no more offers). As Katy Balls reported yesterday on Coffee House, the Tory rebels have suggested this higher offer for the first 100 days of a new leader to replace Sunak.
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