Sunak faces new round of leadership speculation

Rishi Sunak will try to calm Conservative jitters over his leadership this week as he faces yet more speculation over whether Tory MPs could try to oust him before the election.

- Pippa Crerar

The prime minister's allies fought a rearguard action over the weekend.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, urged anxious colleagues to "have some confidence" in the party leadership and to stay the course, telling them: "Politics is a team game." Harper insisted that Sunak would lead the Conservative party into an election at the end of the year despite reports of rebellious MPs plotting to oust him to avoid wipeout at the polls.

Senior ministers acknowledged, however, that Sunak had faced a difficult few days with the Tory donor Frank Hester racism row, the defection of Lee Anderson to the Reform party, and his spring budget failing to move the dial in the national polls.

However, they said Conservative MPs should "hold their nerve", as the party's only real hope at the next election was the economy gradually improving.

One cabinet minister said it would be "absolutely disastrous" to change leader again before an election while another warned against "getting stuck in a doom loop" of despair.

Sunak faces another challenging week, with his controversial Rwanda deportation bill returning to the Commons today as part of ping pong with the House of Lords and an appearance in front of febrile Tory backbenchers at the 1922 Committee on Wednesday.