Rishi Sunak has always been out of touch with voters and this past week has proven it - Jayne Dowle

Talk about a tin ear. It wasn’t just missing the mark with what the public might expect of their Prime Minister, it was also disrespectful both to the occasion and the other attendees.

Whilst King Charles, at the age of 75 and in pain from ongoing cancer treatment, stood for hours alongside other international dignitaries, including US President Joe Biden, 81, sprightly Sunak bowed out.

Who knows who in his private staff advised him that leaving this one-off, never-to-be-repeated-in-history 80th anniversary would be a good idea, or whether their intentions were entirely honourable. I don’t suppose we will ever know the truth of what really went on that day at Conservative Party high command, or what happened when all hell broke loose afterwards.

But it’s fair to say that the damage is irreparable. It’s reported, via a Whitehall source, that former PM and now Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron was “apoplectic” about Sunak’s decision to bow out, but, when asked why he had not “picked Sunak up by his lapels”, he said: “There is only so much I can do.”

Or, as it could be read, give Sunak enough rope to hang himself perhaps? What a mess. Despite a fairly credible performance against Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in the first televised General Election debate, even before the fiasco across the Channel in France, Sunak was presiding over a party trailing in the polls, with the great white shark of Nigel Farage circling to seize the right-wing vote.

It's said that scores of political aides at Conservative Central Office are refusing point blank to engage in campaigning, staff are claiming illness, and the money has run out to conduct any kind of social media campaign because long-standing Tory party donors are refusing to cough up any cash.

Can you imagine what it feels like to be a dedicated backbench Tory MP right now? Would you really be confident and motivated to get out on the streets and go knocking on doors to rally support, when you know you’re going to have no choice but to defend the indefensible?

“Why won’t he go?” is the short way to put a long, but apposite question veteran TV broadcaster Trevor Phillips asked the Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride on Sky News early this week. It’s worth repeating in full: "Would it not be a courageous and moral act for him to announce that he knows he's leading his party to defeat, partly because of his own actions and his own shortcomings and that he will now step aside to save seats which won't be saved if he stays for the next four weeks?"

This is the crux of the matter. Does Sunak wish to go down in history as the Conservative leader who trashed the party almost beyond recognition? He must be made to consider this, and quickly. If he was to step down a temporary leader would have precious little time to repair as much of the damage as possible and salvage seats.

He must accept that he is on borrowed time in any case. Even if he clings on and limps on, after July 4 Sunak’s future is uncertain. If he is to step down after the election, would he also resign as an MP?

Surely the people of Richmond, North Yorkshire, who he has served since 2015, with a 27,000-plus majority since the 2019 General Election, deserve to know where they stand, presuming they return him to Parliament? The prospect of a by-election in a hastily-vacated seat so soon after a General Election would cause yet further instability.

That the question over leadership is even being raised and debated less than a month before a General Election should tell us just how perilous the position of the Prime Minister is. And given that Parliament has been suspended and there are technically no MPs, only parliamentary candidates and serving ministers, it would be on him to fall on his own sword.

Can it really only be a month since Sunak warned – following the trouncing the Conservatives suffered at the local elections which saw the Conservatives trounce – that we were on course for a hung parliament and a Labour-led ‘coalition of chaos’ after the General Election? If a week is a long time in politics, this last month feels like a epoch, with his grip on credibility sliding further with every day.