Rishi Sunak barely took much time to relax over Christmas. He was back at his desk in Downing Street when most people were still trying to work out what day of the week it was. The prime minister is well known for believing hard work will get you what you want. But even if he had worked nonstop through the festive period, he would have got no closer to solving the fundamental dilemma he faces next year.
Early or late? Sunak hasn’t made his mind up whether to hold the general election in May or the autumn, with his senior aides sitting on different horns of the dilemma. Conservative Campaign Headquarters is working on the assumption that the election could be at any point, but many MPs assume he will go early: one sent me his diary, which runs from the 6 March budget as the starting gun for a campaign that culminates on 2 May. The second week of May is ominously blocked off as “election recovery”.
