Rishi Sunak needs to reset the party fast, fill the policy vacuum, and slash taxes
PM must stay calm and keep on going
“IF you’re going through hell, keep going.’’
As Rishi Sunak surveys the Tory wreckage in the aftermath of Boris Johnson’s resignation he may take some comfort from Winston Churchill’s fighting words.
But how can he steer his warring party thorough such turmoil?
This week the starting gun will be fired on crucial by-elections in which Labour and the Lib Dems plan to carve up Tory votes between themselves like butchers in a political abattoir.
On Tuesday the Labour-led stitch-up on whether Boris lied on Partygate will finally be complete as the report into Covid breaches at Number 10 looks set to be unveiled, leading to more bitter party divisions.
Labour can largely sit back and watch the carnage.
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But the PM needs to somehow calm his party’s nerves.
Yes Boris has been treated appallingly. He’s right when he says this looks like a Brexit witch-hunt.
All the people who’ve chased him from office — the civil service, the Remainiac wing of the Tory party, much of the broadcast media — were never going to forgive him for getting us out, and they got their man in the end.
But Tory MPs need to remember who the real enemy is: Keir Starmer’s Labour, who just junked their only actual policy.
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Despite everything, Labour haven’t sealed the deal with the voters.
But what Tories can’t afford is weeks of more bloodletting and resignations leading to endless by-elections.
Rishi needs to reset the party fast, fill the policy vacuum, slash taxes and convince his MPs they have a hope amidst the carnage of this civil war.
As for Boris, the chance of him returning as an MP before the election are remote, though he has a track record of defying the odds.
He has every right to feel rage at the way the party and the coalition of anti-Brexiteers have treated him.
And his downfall from an 80-seat majority to exile amidst self-inflicted scandal is one of the great tragedies of modern politics.
Amazing Amazonians
THE story of how four children survived 40 days alone in the Amazon rainforest is an astonishing testament to the human spirit.
Living on fruits foraged from the jungle the kids — the youngest aged just one — were found by search teams following a plane crash.
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The children are members of the indigenous Huitoto tribe.
Perhaps a lesson in survival for our cosseted kids — who usually find Amazon via their computer tablets.