London by Thanasis Gavou

Message to internal party challengers to support him until the election expected in the autumn, otherwise he would not hesitate to call it sooner despite the huge poll gap with Labour, the UK prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party sent through his allies Rishi Sunak.

In recent days, scenarios have been circulating about a group of Conservative MPs rallying around Penny Mordant, the only popular Tory politician according to opinion polls. Multiple reports describe a party disillusioned by the polls and Mr Sunak’s inability to turn the picture around.

Already more than 60 current Conservative MPs have said that they will not stand as candidates in the upcoming elections, including former Prime Minister Theresa May.

The voting intention metrics they have continued for months to give Sir Keir Starmer’s Labor a lead of at least 20 percentage points, with an election likely in October or November.

Speaking to The Times, a “senior ally” of the Prime Minister warned that Mr Sunak would prefer to call an election sooner rather than be ousted from the party as has happened to his three immediate predecessors.

“They should be careful what they wish for. It depends on them. If they don’t want elections, they should stop the conspiracies. Rishi could easily say ‘okay, if that’s the mood of the party, I don’t think it’s fair to subject him to another leadership contest’. He can reasonably say that instead he would go to the Palace (to ask for the dissolution of Parliament),” commented the ally of the British Prime Minister.

Asked at midday on Monday about the rumored shenanigans in his party, Mr Sunak himself replied that he was “not interested” in “political games at Westminster” and insisted that his party was “united” in implementing its policies.

On Sunday night, Mr. Sunak stated that fyear will be the year Britain recovers, adding that “there is a real sense that the economy is turning the corner”.

Mr Sunak singled out the significant fall in inflation in recent months, which is expected to become more pronounced with the release of the latest official figures later in the week.

However, a poll on her behalf Mail on Sunday it showed the Conservatives heading for their heaviest defeat in their history, losing less than 150 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons (they had won 365 in the 2019 election).

It would be the lowest number of Conservative MPs even since 1997 and Tony Blair’s victory, when the Tories won just 165 seats. It would be fewer MPs than even the corresponding all-time low of 156 MPs in 1906.

In contrast, Labor and Keir Starmer appear to be winning a historic 125-seat majority.