PM's Hung Parliament Yarn Is Spin On A Crushing Defeat

Rishi Sunak is clutching at the thinnest of straws in claiming the results of last Thursday’s local elections point to a hung parliament.

- ANDREW GRICE

After disastrous results for the Conservatives, the prime minister needed all the ammunition he could get, and gratefully received some from a Sky News projection of the “national equivalent vote” showing Labour would be 32 seats short of an overall majority if the local results were repeated at the general election.

Sunak’s message is in part intended to help the Tories keep their flagging spirits up. If his party thinks it has an outside chance of preventing a Labour majority, it might postpone its ideological battle over the Tories’ future direction until after the election. The PM’s main reason is to replay one of his party’s greatest hits: warning voters that not backing the Tories would result in a Labour-led “coalition of chaos”.

Sunak told The Times: “These results suggest we are heading for a hung parliament with Labour as the largest party. Keir Starmer propped up in Downing Street by the SNP, Liberal Democrats and the Greens would be a disaster for Britain. The country doesn’t need more political horse trading, but action. We are the only party that has a plan to deliver on the priorities of the people.”