They call it ‘projection’ but it’s a grand deception. And it’s Sunak’s only hope of staying in power

‘Last week’s local election results suggest the public’s patience may be fading with Rishi Sunak’s Tories.’ Sunak at the coronation Big Lunch in Downing Street on Sunday. Photograph: WIktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

The Tories and their entourage, buoyed by four general election wins in a row but looking ever more nervously towards the next one, have found a new way to dodge blame for Britain’s ailing state: pretending they’re not in power.

“Why is the left in the driving seat of government after 13 years of Tory rule,” the journalist Charles Moore asked in the Daily Telegraph last month. A recent cover essay of the Spectator struck a similar note, claiming a “new woke elite” is now “destined to rule over an increasingly divided and embittered society”. Pieces in the Sun, Mail and the Times raised the same alarm. The diagnosis is clear: don’t be fooled by the Conservatives’ long residence in No 10 – a cabal of middle-class liberals, out of step with the public and covertly led by Gary Lineker, is really ruling Britain.