Conservative MPs rally round Sunak after former minister calls for new PM

Conservative MPs rallied round Rishi Sunak yesterday as a former minister who called for him to quit said he felt like he was shouting "iceberg" on the Titanic.

- Eleni Courea

Simon Clarke was roundly criticised by Tory colleagues for writing that Sunak should be replaced as party leader in a scathing opinion piece in the Telegraph.

One Tory MP from the 2019 intake told the Guardian that Clarke, who was housing secretary in Liz Truss's short-lived administration, should lose the whip for undermining the prime minister in an election year.

"He's a tosser," they said, and referred to other recent articles in the paper. "A guy out for revenge for the failed Truss experiment relying on a single Telegraph poll which was paid for by Rishi's enemies to discredit him."

Tobias Ellwood, a former defence minister, said: "It's been interesting how his comments have prompted an impressive rally of support for the PM and against Clarke. I suspect this may deter others from following such a reckless call for yet another leadership campaign." 

But in an interview with the BBC yesterday, Clarke likened himself to someone shouting "iceberg" as the Titanic heads towards disaster.

"I totally respect the strong views that something like this evokes," he said. "No one likes that guy that's shouting 'iceberg' but I suspect that people will be even less happy if we hit the iceberg. And we are on course to do that... I don't want a decade of decline under [Keir] Starmer."