Tory fury explodes at Simon Clarke’s ‘totally mad’ demand for Rishi Sunak to resign as PM

Sir Simon Clarke’s demand for Tory MPs to oust Rishi Sunak as leader appears to have had the opposite effect he was hoping for, sparking his colleagues from across the party to back their leader.

Writing in the Telegraph last night, Sir Simon blasted the PM’s “uninspiring leadership” and warned he will usher in a “decade or more” of Keir Starmer.

He wrote: “It is now beyond doubt that whilst the Prime Minister is far from solely responsible for our present predicament, his uninspiring leadership is the main obstacle to our recovery”.

“Rishi Sunak has sadly gone from asset to anchor. He lags Keir Starmer — himself no Tony Blair — by double digits on the ‘Best Prime Minister’ metric.”

Sir Simon Clarke is just the second MP to go public with calls for Mr Sunak to quit, following Dame Andrea Jenkyns in November last year, however she claims “at least 29 MPs” have also done so.

While Sir Simon may have been hoping his letter might spark a leadership election, which would need 53 Tory MPs to submit letters of no confidence to the 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady, it appears his efforts have had the opposite effect.

MPs from across the Tory party’s many factions have come out to publicly criticise Sir Simon, as well as throw insults at him.

Dame Priti Patel, who has frequently rebelled against Rishi Sunak, said the party must not engage in a “facile and divisive” leadership debate.

She said: “At this critical time for our country, with challenges at home and abroad, our party must focus on the people we serve and deliver for the country.

“Engaging in facile and divisive self-indulgence only serves our opponents, it’s time to unite and get on with the job.”

Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has also described Sir Simon Clarke as “wrong”, warning the Tory Party “to focus on delivering for the public not divisive rowing”.

David Davis said the rowing “is getting silly”, adding: “The Party and the country are sick and tired of MPs putting their own leadership ambitions ahead of the UK’s best interests.”

Minister Kevin Hollinrake this morning accused Sir Simon of panicking, claiming his view is “not the overwhelming view of the party”.

The rallying around Rishi Sunak has also descended into more personal attacks on Sir Simon, with centrist MP Tobias Ellwood slamming him as “self-indulgent, reckless and defeatist”.

Mr Ellwood said: “We’ve got a disgruntled ex-cabinet member grumpy that his preferred former prime minister is no longer in No 10. He’s throwing his teddies in the corner, calling for yet another change in Prime Minister. This is self-indulgent, it’s reckless and it’s defeatist.”

In private, MPs voiced greater frustrations and opposition to Sir Simon’s call for a fourth Prime Minister in five years.

Messages seen by The Times revealed Minister Andrew Bowie begging MPs to “get a f***ing grip”, asking colleagues whether they can “for more than five minutes dispense with the civil war and leadership speculation”.

Former secretary of state Liam Fox warned: “Some may think they will be giants in opposition. They would soon find they are ignored, impotent and unimportant”.

A close ally of Simon Clarke’s told the Express that his move is “Mad. Totally mad”.

They also pointed out that Sir Simon previously put a letter in against Theresa May, only to famously take it back out some months later, helping her to survive.

They added: “That was the wrong call then and this is the wrong call now.”