Half of Sunak’s Cabinet are lining up to replace him, says Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer has claimed half of Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet are “lining up to replace him” amid speculation about a plot to oust the Prime Minister.

The Labour leader taunted his opposite number over reports some of his own MPs are considering a bid to topple him and install Penny Mordaunt, the Commons Leader, as his successor.

He accused the Tories of putting themselves before the country with “endless games and gimmicks”, and urged them to “pack up, go home and waste somebody else’s time”.

He said during Prime Minister’s Questions: “You can see why he doesn’t want an election, why his party have lost faith in him, why half of his Cabinet are lining up to replace him.

“No answers, no plan, no clue. And the Prime Minister has never had the courage to stand up to his party. So let me help him out and say to them what he wishes he could.

“The mortgage mayhem, the waiting lists, the criminals walking free. They are the cost of Tory chaos and if they can’t bring themselves to stop the endless games and gimmicks, stop putting themselves before country, they should pack up, go home and waste somebody else’s time.”

The Telegraph understands that Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, has also been floated as a potential “unity candidate” to replace Mr Sunak.

The centrist MP did better than expected in the Tory leadership race following Boris Johnson’s resignation in 2022, running an energetic campaign before being knocked out in the third round.

Mr Sunak hit back by accusing Sir Keir of trying to “talk down Britain”, arguing that new figures showing a fall in inflation proved that his plan for the country was working.

“He talks about his ideas but we are two weeks on from the Budget, the shadow chancellor found time to make a one-hour speech last night and we still don’t know how they are going to pay for their £28 billion black hole,” he said.

“But while he tries to talk down Britain and the progress that we are making, today’s news shows that the plan is working.

“Inflation down, energy bills down, wages up, pensions up, and taxes cut by £900. And that is the choice. Higher taxes and back to square one with Labour or tax cuts and real change with the Conservatives.”

It came as a Government minister rebuked Tory backbenchers said to be plotting to replace Mr Sunak with Ms Mordaunt.

‘Penny won’t be leader’

Esther McVey, the common sense minister, said it was correct to say there are “a handful of disgruntled Members of Parliament, absolutely”.

But she told GB News: “Penny had her chance to become the leader, she didn’t win. So that’s where it is, it goes to bed, Penny won’t be the leader, it’s Rishi Sunak.

“However, when we did those 10 Rwandan votes the other night, we were there for hours. I spoke to all the Conservative MPs and they fully support him, except for those disgruntled ones.”

“If there was a vote of confidence in Rishi Sunak, he’d win by a country mile.”

Sir Keir also said Mr Sunak was “so diminished” that his “entire focus” was on “stopping his MPs holding the sword of Damocles above his head, perhaps even literally” in the case of Ms Mordaunt, who carried the Sword of State during the King’s Coronation in May 2023.

‘Anonymous briefings’

At a meeting of the 1922 Committee on Wednesday night, Sir Jake Berry, a former Conservative Party chairman, used a question to Mr Sunak to voice his suspicions that No 10 was briefing against him.

Sir Jake is understood to have said: “I haven’t put a letter in but anonymous briefings are corrosive to everyone. That needs to stop.”

A second source added: “It wasn’t him attacking Rishi in any way but he wanted to push that out to make sure we all come together. It is a real problem that briefings about MPs are happening and just creates more division in the party.”

Rishi Sunak told the committee that those briefing against him were “hurting everyone in the parliamentary party”, according to one in attendance.

Jonathan Gullis, MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, told journalists that the Prime Minister stressed the “long list of successes” that the Government had achieved.

“The general message was, here’s a long list of things, here’s a long list of successes that we’ve had, and the tiny minority that’s seeking to continually undermine and brief against him, you’re not briefing against him and hurting him, you’re hurting everyone in the parliamentary party and therefore it’s time to grow up and actually pull together.”

“Grow up was my words not his words, just so you know,” he added.

Mr Gullis said that there had been a broad range of MPs from both wings of the Tory Party that had attended the 1922 committee to support the Prime Minister.