Weak UK Tory Rebels Struggle to Undermine Unpopular Rishi Sunak

A senior Conservative politician who used a major newspaper to warn of electoral “catastrophe” if the ruling party keeps Prime Minister Rishi Sunak likely hoped for a better response. Instead, the anger leveled at Simon Clarke by his colleagues underscored the collective bind they are in.

Clarke, a former Cabinet minister under Liz Truss and a Treasury minister when Sunak was chancellor, went public with his demand for the prime minister to quit in an op-ed published late Tuesday in the Daily Telegraph. It was the latest front-page intervention by the right-leaning newspaper against Sunak, raising eyebrows in Westminster given its following among grassroots Tories.