Rishi Sunak has been dealt a fresh blow to his leadership after pollster Will Dry resigned as a special adviser, warning that the Tories “are heading for the most almighty of defeats”.
According to The Sun’s Harry Cole, Dry became the latest member of Sunak’s team to walk away from his position as he warned that “at least a decade of Labour rule” is on the cards.
It comes as Sir Simon Clarke, who called on Sunak to quit this week, compared himself to a man shouting “iceberg” in the face of approaching oblivion as he came under fire from senior Conservatives.
The former Cabinet minister insisted he was acting alone rather than as part of an orchestrated plot as he acknowledged a “pretty hostile” response from many Tory MPs.
Home Secretary James Cleverly was among a string of current and former ministers slapping down Sir Simon for his attack on Mr Sunak.
Sir Simon, who served as Liz Truss’s levelling-up secretary, said the Conservatives will be “massacred” at the general election unless Mr Sunak is replaced.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer seized on the latest wave of Tory unrest, saying it is another example of “party first, country second”.
Defending his own intervention, Sir Simon told BBC News: “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. That is the point that I need to land with colleagues respectfully and calmly.
“We are not at the moment responding to the situation with the seriousness that it warrants.”
Sir Simon repeatedly declined to say who he wants to become Tory leader, but said there are a “number of people who could do it”.
“I don’t want to tarnish anyone by saying this. I’ve done this on my own, I’ve been really clear that I’ve done it deliberately on my own so I don’t make anyone else the subject of the sort of criticism that I’ve incurred,” he said.