“None of us sitting in the press gallery had been anticipating it,” Kiran Stacey, the Guardian’s political correspondent, tells Helen Pidd.
On Wednesday, as Rishi Sunak went into the Commons for PMQs, he realised that his get together was yet another MP down. Natalie Elphicke had crossed the floor to join the Labour social gathering, the next MP to do so in 10 times.
The Conservatives took large community election losses past 7 days and are now trailing by 30 points in the most current YouGov poll. What choices does Sunak have?
Kiran points out what these losses indicate for the prime minister, and looks at what calculation Keir Starmer created in having in a rightwing Tory. Do latest situations give us an perception into how the upcoming normal election will go?
“Rishi Sunak has been talking about the chance of a hung parliament this 7 days, making use of the community election benefits to try and gee up his Tory MPs,” Kiran tells Helen. “But just as he’s undertaking that we see a new poll out on Thursday from YouGov showing Labour now has a 30-stage lead in the nationwide polls.”
Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
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