Can Number 10 shut down talk of an early general election?
Will they do something in the coming days and hours to shut down the wildfire talk of bringing forward an election to May? And how will that land?
Those are the key questions in Westminster this evening.
Rishi Sunak’s team no longer denies that things are bad. The mood amongst MPs is febrile, unhappy, tense and uncertain.
Many are letting this be known privately, through Sir Graham Brady, and some are saying so publicly. The prime minister was hit by three unsupportive questions at PMQs from his own side, an indicator that discipline is fracturing.
But some in Number 10 think there is light at the end of the tunnel – that the disquiet amongst Tory MPs will die down once they realise the prime minister is going to stick true to his word and is not about to call a May election.
But how do they achieve this? Quiet briefings and non-definitive statements by Rishi Sunak have not worked so far.
He only has until 26 March to call a vote on 2 May, coinciding with local and mayoral ballots. But will he feel he has to say something more emphatic before then?
Ordinarily, a signal from Downing Street there’s no plan for an election should be enough to shut things down.
Politics latest: Diane Abbott speaks out after PMQs dominated by Tory donor’s reported comments about her
But such is the perceived weakness of Number 10 among Tory MPs, and a belief that most things it touches get worse, that this has shut down neither the debate about election timing, nor the discussion about the prime minister’s future.
To many in the country, the talk of an early election seems mad.
The party is 26 points behind in some polls and there is a chance of improving economic data in the coming weeks – just look at the monthly GDP on Tuesday pointing to Britain coming out of recession by the time of the next quarterly figures in May.
Yet standing outside the Members’ Lobby today, MP after MP questioned this and gave…
