Tory manifesto launch unlikely to turn tide after Rishi Sunak's D-Day debacle: The Yorkshire Post says

Mel Stride, one of the Prime Minister’s closest allies, said there is “no question” that Mr Sunak will lead his party into polling day in the wake of rumours from the likes of ex-Cabinet Minister Nadine Dorries suggesting he could be about to quit.

Ms Dorries’s comments require the important context that she is an ardent critic of the Prime Minister, but she is hardly the only one questioning his judgement following his D-Day debacle.

Indeed, Mr Sunak may have more concerns about the views of those who are nominally on his side.

The Sunday Times reported that Foreign Secretary David Cameron is said to be “apoplectic” about Mr Sunak’s decision to cut short his attendance at the D-Day commemorations and had advised the Prime Minister against it.

Mr Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said Mr Sunak is feeling the backlash over his decision to leave events in Normandy early “very personally”.

He tried to put a positive spin on their party’s dire polling figures by suggesting that with four weeks of the campaign left to run, the Tories have time to turn things around.

The expected publication of party manifestos over the next few days look like the Conservative Party’s only slim hope of turning things around.

But any policy they announce will face the immediate question of why it hasn’t been tried already in their 14 years in power.

Meanwhile Labour’s safety-first strategy makes it unlikely they will be a repeat of Theresa May’s controversial social care policy which contributed to her 2017 General Election campaign unravelling.

Conservative defeat at the election now appears inevitable, with the scale of the loss appearing the only outstanding question.