Rishi Sunak praises Boris Johnson’s withdrawal as nominations deadline looms – UK politics live

Sir Christopher Chope, a Conservative MP who wanted Boris Johnson to replace Liz Truss, told the Today programme this morning that he thought the next prime minister should call a general election to get a mandate. He said:

If people who are now seeking the crown want to have the respect which comes from having a mandate, then what I’m saying is that the best way they can get that respect is by winning a mandate with the people, and that’s why I think a general election is essentially the only answer, otherwise we’re just going to go from bad to worse.

The party is ungovernable in the House of Commons and so we’re going to have continuing rebellions as we try to change policies and so on, and so I must say I’m very pessimistic, I’m very angry, and I feel that Boris has been let down once again and undermined by our parliamentary colleagues.

Most Conservative MPs dread an early general election, because polling suggests they would lose by a landslide. The latest Politico poll of polls gives Labour a 34-point lead. Electoral Calculus, which uses figures giving Labour a 27-point lead, estimates that an election now would lead to Labour winning 507 seats, and the Conservatives getting just 48.

But Chope is not alone, and other Tories – particularly Johnson supporters – have been making the same point. Last night Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary, said she thought a general election was inevitable.

Zac Goldsmith, the Foreign Office minister, made the same point yesterday.

And in his Sunday Telegraph column the Tory peer Daniel Hannan (who worked with Johnson at the Telegraph, and was given a peerage by him) claimed that an early election could even benefit the Tories. He said:

The constitutional case is that circumstances have changed: neither the pandemic nor the war had happened in 2019, manifestos have been overtaken by events, and there is a need for fresh mandates.

The tactical case is that a Labour government elected now is more likely to be short-lived than one elected in two years’ time when the Tories have carried out arduous and unpopular repair-work, and when the economy is recovering.

It is even possible that, if the choice is put starkly enough, the Tories might win.

In his statement yesterday anouncing he would not be a candidate Johnson himself claimed he was “uniquely placed to avert a general election now”, implying that another PM would find it hard to avoid calls to hold one.

Almost all opposition parties are demanding an early election, and a public petition calling for one has now attracted more than 865,000 signatures.