There is only one job in politics worse than being Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser, and it’s being leader of the opposition. When things go badly, everyone’s a critic. When they’re going better – well, much the same. It’s barely two weeks since the prime minister narrowly survived a humiliating attempt to oust him. And at the time of writing the Tories are on course for one, if not two, byelection defeats, as voters take revenge for the general squalor engulfing the party, but also for something much more fundamental.
A staggering 72% of voters think the government is handling the economy badly, including 56% of Conservatives, according to YouGov’s regular tracking. Those are ravens-leaving-the-tower numbers for a Tory government, yet all this week it has somehow been Labour MPs griping about their leader and jockeying openly for position should he fall under a bus driven by Durham police.
