Kicked in ballots but PM fights on
HE may have suffered a drubbing at the polls, but Rishi Sunak has crucially silenced the plotters.
Doomsayers were keen to predict that the Prime Minister would face an immediate leadership challenge following dire local election results.
Tories suffered a drubbing at the polls, but it wasn’t an outright meltdown – Rishi Sunak has been able to wait out the stormToby Melville / PA Wire
But as his deputy Oliver Dowden says today, “the settled will of the Conservative Party is that Rishi Sunak will be leading us into the next election”.
Tory rebels have been angling to oust him even since he became leader.
But the prospect of a meltdown at the General Election has focused minds.
Significantly the PM may at last be able to get on to the front foot without forever nervously glancing in his rear-view mirror.
He should finally have the space, if not the time, to stamp his own vision on his party and take on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer toe to toe.
Of course, he has a huge task after such a ballot box thumping.
But he must seize on tiny chinks of light such as the wins by Tory mayor Ben Houchen and holding Harlow council.
And there is still a lot of unease about Sir Keir, who is a far cry from Tony Blair when he won his 1997 landslide.
Rishi must now forge a manifesto of policies that tackle the everyday concerns of the public.
So when the General Election comes voters will have a real choice about which leader they trust to get the job done.
He may be battered and bruised, but at least the PM is still a contender.
Sad day for London
DESPITE his London win, there is little doubt Sadiq Khan is a hugely diminished figure.
Has any mayor presided over a more miserable regime?
He has overseen a surge in knife crime, provoked fury over Ulez and put virtue-signalling ahead of the real concerns of the public.
Under his watch the status of London as a global city has shrunk disastrously.
And now he will crawl through his third term — like commuters caught up in his chaotic Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.
Cops & plodders
IT is a disgrace that the police are increasingly hampered by woke rules.
Take the force that can’t issue a description of a teen on the run after being accused of attempted murder because of his privacy.
Or the shopkeeper accused of breaching the rights of a shoplifter by displaying CCTV images of the thug.
Contrast this with the courage of the female police officer who Tasered the sword-wielding monster in East London.
That is the kind of bravery that should shine through woke red tape.