This Tory long goodbye is toxic for the country – and making Labour’s job ever harder

‘We’ve lived through fag-end administrations before, but this one is more toxic.’ Rishi Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, at the Conservative conference in Manchester, 4 October 2023. Photograph: Jon Super/AP

We’re at the fag-end of this government, but it’s going to burn for a while longer yet. Those who hoped it might finally be stubbed out of its misery on 2 May were set straight by Rishi Sunak on Thursday, when he killed off speculation that he might add to the clutch of local elections scheduled for that day by calling a general one. The long wait for this government to be flattened under the voters’ collective shoe goes on.

We’ve lived through fag-end administrations before, but this one is more toxic. Back in the dog days of the John Major era, it was bonking backbenchers and brown-envelope cash for questions that pointed to the political terminus. This time, the rot is graver.