"Fed Up" Tories Trudge Into The General Election As Divided As Ever

Conservatives MPs remain "fed-up" and divided as to whether Rishi Sunak should have called an election on Wednesday, as the Prime Minister kicks off the formal campaign around the country.

From the backbenches to Government ministers, Tory MPs have for months been resigned to the belief that the party is likely to lose the next election. Professor John Curtice, a renowned pollster and respected psephologist, gave Labour’s chances of winning the election a 99 per cent probability earlier this year.

A YouGov poll published by The Times on Thursday found the Conservative Party trailed Labour by 25 points. If this data was replicated at the ballot box, the Conservative Party would receive fewer seats than when John Major oversaw the party's catastrophic ejection from office in 1997.

According to one Tory MP on the right of the party, the main chat in parliamentary tea rooms lately has been "how to get another job". 

Sunak has long insisted he would call an election for the second half of the year, meaning the now confirmed 4 July vote just about allows him to stick to his pledge. But many had nonetheless settled on the assumption that voters would not be expected to go to the polls until November. 

“It is still not coming across that many people can follow the logic behind it,” the same Tory MP told PoliticsHome.

One cabinet minister told PoliticsHome they understood that MPs were shocked and surprised as they thought they were on a six-month journey until the election.

But three key factors played in the Prime Minister’s thinking to go ahead with July. The first was that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had told Sunak it was unlikely there would be another fiscal event prior to the next election. Uncertain economic data coupled with