Team Blitz India
LONDON: Rishi Sunak will lead the Conservative Party into the forthcoming general election, which is now expected at the end of the year, according to reports quoting a senior minister. This comes soon after news spilled out about plots to oust him as Prime Minister to avoid a wipeout at the polls.
The Daily Mail had earlier revealed that Backbenchers are plotting to replace the PM with former leadership rival Penny Mordaunt which the newspaper said “‘in a swift ‘bloodless coup’ in a desperate bid to cling on to power with the party facing a hammering from voters”.
Backbenchers are MPs or members of the House of Lords that are neither government ministers nor opposition Shadow spokespeople. They are so called because, in the Chamber, they sit in the rows of benches behind their parties’ spokespeople who are known as frontbenchers.
Subsequently, Transport Secretary Mark Harper, said that the PM was focused on “making the right decisions” for the country. Speculation gathered momentum after a poll suggested that the Tories are heading towards their biggest defeat.
When asked if the PM will still be the leader of the Conservative Party at the general election, the Transport Secretary told a Sky News programme called ‘Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips’ that “he will take us into that election and he will set out very clearly that we’re a Government with a plan”.
Earlier, according to The Mail on Sunday, which claimed to have seen a “seat-by-seat research conducted on behalf of corporate businesses”, Sir Keir Starmer could be on course to win a majority of nearly 250 seats.
Sir Keir is the leader of the Labour Party and the Leader of the Opposition in the UK Parliament. A section of the media reported uncertainty following PM Sunak ruling out holding a general election on May 2. He had also indicated that the election will be held in the latter half of 2024.
