'Like a flesh-eating virus': Next week's results are expected to be grim for obvious reasons. If only they thought to consider what those reasons were.
Sunak has asked ‘that’ question again.
Several weeks ago I highlighted the inner turmoil within both the Conservative Party - and in Rishi Sunak’s own head - over why nothing appears to be ‘working’ at the minute. Sunak, as of week, continues to wonder why that might be.
CCHQ is referring ‘the cut through’ in the polls, or the unshifting gap that has remained resolutely static for the best part of over two years and indicates a) just how far behind the Conservatives are and how disliked they are by the majority of the public, and b) how nothing they do appears to improve the situation.
The government has attempted to do many things to shift the polls since the last set of local elections, and yet next week when voters go to the ballots, it is expected that the Conservatives will lose hundreds more councillors.
I also previously highlighted the problems that Sunak will face in Blackpool when voters go to the ballots on the same day to elect a new MP following the departure of its former MP Scott Benton. It is expected that the Conservatives will lose there, and it is a realistic possibility that two key Mayoral elections will see both Andy Street and Ben Houchen defenestrated also.
In response to these expectations, an insecure Rishi Sunak himself has reportedly gone full Nixon, and he has taken to attacking voters by privately asking close aides, “Why do people not realise that I’m right?”