Ministers have asked Rishi Sunak to stay on as leader if his party loses the general election in bid to stop a chaotic civil war within the Conservative Party.
As pollsters predict a landslide supermajority for Labour today, the Prime Minister’s colleagues have urged him to stay on until September if he faces defeat rather than leave immediately.
Those close to Mr Sunak have claimed he will do ‘whatever is needed of him by the party’ to ensure ‘consistency and stability’ rather than let the party descend into bitter infighting as it seeks to find a new leader.
If the PM were to remain at the reigns of the Tory party it would mean he would have to continue attending prime minister’s questions – instead from the opposition bench – and keep the party under control during its fourth leadership contest in five years.
A veteran Conservative MP said: ‘It’s an excruciating and humiliating thing for a defeated party leader to have to go through. If he called this election because he’d had enough, he won’t take kindly to being asked to stay on.’
Ministers have asked Rishi Sunak to stay on as leader if his party loses the general election in bid to stop a chaotic civil war within the Conservative Party
Penny Mourdant, leader of the Commons, who to date has had two unsuccessful leadership contests is expected to lose her seat in Plymouth
Former home secretary Priti Patel speaking at an event on policing at the Policy Exchange in Westminster in January
Another cabinet minister told the Times: ‘We are seeking to persuade Rishi and his team to stay on and provide some continuity.
‘We want him to, at the very least, do what Michael Howard did in 2005, and remain in place until the leadership election is complete.
‘Once we get through election day, that will be communicated to him very clearly. We don’t want him to do a David Cameron.’
The cabinet minister was referring to Lord Cameron’s decision to suddenly quit after he lost the 2016 EU referendum, surprising many within his party.
The attempts to allow Mr Sunak to cling on as head of the party come as Suella Braverman launched an extraordinary post-mortem of the Tories’ on election eve – claiming the ‘writings on the wall’.
Attacking the party she one day hopes to lead, the former Home Secretary blamed a failure to tackle immigration and ‘woke’ policies as she insisted the contest was already ‘over’.
Ms Braverman called on her fellow Tories to concentrate on fighting ‘for the soul’ of the party arguing that traditional support had ‘evaporated’ to the left and to the right with Nigel Farage’s Reform bid.
Her brutal intervention came as a major poll suggested that Sir Keir Starmer is on track for an enormous landslide today, picking up more seats than Tony Blair did in 1997.
Tom Tugendhat attends a Service of Thanksgiving in July last year
It has emerged how a string of websites backing possible Tory leadership hopefuls, such as Kemi Badenoch, have been created or updated in recent months
The website backingbadenoch.co.uk was last updated on June 27 and is thought to be a grassroots effort
If polling is correct, several prominent Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers are set to loose their seats to their Labour opponents.
Amongst those is Penny Mourdant, leader of the Commons, who to date has had two unsuccessful leadership contests.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick are also set to go.
A slew of other current Cabinet ministers – including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Mel Stride, Mark Harper and Alex Chalk – are also set to go.
Fears have even been raised that Rishi Sunak could lose his own seat in his Richmond and Northallerton constituency.
Should these MPs lose their seats, it would mean that the main frontrunners for the Conservative leadership battle would be Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch, Home Secretary James Cleverly and former home secretary Priti Patel.
Earlier this week it emerged how a string of websites backing possible hopefuls have been created or updated in recent months.
The site kemi4leader.com, which redirects to the Conservative Party homepage, was registered in West Yorkshire on April 18.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman is widely expected to hold onto her Hampshire seat
Current Home Secretary James Cleverly is also expected to cling on to his seat in Braintree, Essexs
Another site backingbadenoch.co.uk was last updated on June 27 and is thought to be a grassroots effort, the newspaper reported.
But the website used for Kemi Badenoch’s leadership attempt in 2022, kemiforprimeminister.com, no longer exists.
It was also revealed how the website suella4leader.co.uk, used to promote the campaign of former home secretary Suella Braverman in 2022, was last updated on 10 June.
And the website pm4pm, used by Penny Mordaunt – the Leader of the House of Commons – during her previous leadership campaign, was last updated on the day of the local elections in May.
