If the Tories needed proof that Rishi Sunak is a loser, they found it in a game of marbles

‘Many ministers are sympathetic to Sunak’s predicament; the phrase “doing the best he can at an impossible job” crops up a lot.’ Photograph: Chris Jackson/PA

‘Why is he just so bad at politics?” fumed one Tory MP after Rishi Sunak’s abrupt cancellation of the Greek prime minister over the Parthenon marbles last week. “This says everything about where his antennae point: away from what ordinary MPs think about, let alone ordinary voters.” Even supporters of the prime minister view the row as unfortunate, not least because they suspect that many “ordinary MPs” had, until last week, thought the sculptures were just very precious toy marbles.

Sunak’s decision to nix a meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis wasn’t a calculated way of showing that he was standing up to European countries: it was a personal reaction to “grandstanding” about an issue that he fears could have implications for other artefacts. But the way the row unfolded does say a lot about the PM – and about his party.