The warning today from the Conservative treasurer Alan Mabbutt that this year his party will face the hardest general election in which it has ever engaged, accurately assesses the scale of the challenge confronting Rishi Sunak, who this week begins his long battle to convince voters to give him another term in power.
As Mabbutt says in a letter to party supporters, the Tories’ path to achieving victory is “steep and narrow” and with opinion polls showing Labour with a commanding lead it would be hard to disagree.
