Simon Clarke should look in the mirror to understand why the Tories are facing ‘annihilation’

That is no longer the case. The Tories are unrecognisable from the days of Disraeli and Churchill to even Heath and Thatcher. Long gone are the titans of Westminster who the public knew it could trust.

The Tories chose to first tear themselves apart over Brexit. Elements of the party became monomaniacal over Britain’s relationship with the EU.

Brexit was delivered but it came at a great cost to the Tory Party. Ken Clarke, Philip Hammond, Justine Greening, Rory Stewart and Sir Nicholas Soames are just a handful of names sidelined in pursuit of this policy.

Talented politicians who should either be leading great offices of state or at the very least providing counsel from the backbenches.

Instead, the Tories today have the likes of Sir Simon Clarke, Lee Anderson, Brendan Clarke-Smith and Jonathan Gullis trying to call the shots. All political yes men from the Boris Johnson era.

To say Sir Simon is a man whose political antenna resembles that of a college student starting a politics course would be doing great injustice to college students.

With his latest intervention, the marvel from Middlesbrough took a swing for current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak only to embarrassingly wind up in a heap on the floor.

The opprobrium from colleagues that his calls for the PM to resign have attracted tell a story in itself. Sir Simon claims that “extinction is a very real possibility” with Sunak at the helm. The reality is that it is people like him that are driving the Tories towards extinction.

The words of Sir David Davis, who says the situation is “getting silly”, should be ringing in the ears of every Tory MP’s ears. “The Party and the country are sick and tired of MPs putting their own leadership ambitions ahead of the UK’s best interests,” he wrote on X.

A Brexiteer, Sir David knows when to draw a line in the sand. The Tory grandee memorably told Boris Johnson: “In the name of God, go,” in 2022, as the beleaguered PM clung on, trashing the Tory Party’s reputation.

Sir David, MP for Haltemprice and Howden, is a well-respected parliamentarian and others within Tory ranks would do well to heed his latest advice.

Sunak’s leadership has hardly been inspiring but Sir Simon and his band of merry misfits are not offering the electorate a better alternative.

Let’s not forget Sir Simon was a key ally of former prime minister Liz Truss and served as housing secretary during her disastrous time in Number 10.

The best that can be said about the Truss premiership is that it was mercifully short. The damage done by her has not been forgotten by the electorate. Neither has Boris Johnson’s mendacity. Therefore blaming Sunak for bleak polling predictions is misguided.

In further embarrassment for Sir Simon, it is said that even Truss doesn’t back his intervention.

Following Truss' short time in office, Sir Simon said the Tories needed to “unite” behind Sunak and that he was “the right person to assume the immense responsibility of being Prime Minister”. He also pledged his “full support”.

A lot of people will rightly lament the demise of the Tory Party. Responsibility for this lies with those who have undermined the party’s core values and abandoned what conservatism is all about.