Why Simon Clarke is Right about Rishi Sunak

It's easy to mock calls for the Conservative party to once again change leaders. But what better options do they still have?

It’s easy to mock the Conservative MP Simon Clarke for his call for the party to ditch Rishi Sunak.

This after all is the man who just one year ago publicly urged them to rally behind the current Prime Minister and who previously expended massive amounts of energy to the aim of putting Liz Truss into Number 10.

It’s also easy to mock the new Telegraph polling, timed for release alongside Clarke’s statement, which shows that voters would rally behind an alternative Conservative Prime Minister.

This polling is quite obviously meaningless. If you give voters a choice between the actual political reality in 2024 and a fictional alternate timeline where all of their desires have been fulfilled and all of their problems have been solved, then they are obviously going to choose the latter.

Yet just because the motivations and methods of those pushing to oust Sunak are easy to dismiss, it does not mean that they are entirely wrong.

Because the truth is that the Conservatives are heading to electoral catastrophe and part of the reason for that is Sunak himself.

And while changing leader for the fifth time since 2010 could end up just making matters even worse for them, there is a small chance that it will not.

Here’s why replacing Sunak could be the least worst option still available to the Conservative party.