Senior Conservatives have urged their fellow Tory MPs to stop plotting against Rishi Sunak and back his Rwanda plan in a Commons vote this week which could deal a major blow to his premiership.
With the crucial vote hanging on a margin of 28 ballots, dozens of hardline Tories could be swayed by a so-called “star chamber” of lawyers, who gave their damning verdict on Sunday that Mr Sunak’s last-ditch legislation to get planes to Rwanda – following his Supreme Court defeat – is “not fit for purpose”.
Ex-Brexit minister David Davis accused Tory colleagues of exacerbating the crisis to boost their own leadership profiles, warning that those “who trade off their own future against the future of the party always lose”, while Iain Duncan Smith urged his party to “stop shouting and just literally discuss these things in a reasonable way”.
Some Tory MPs – described as “mad or malicious or both” by moderate Damian Green – were even reported to be planning an “Advent calendar of s***” for Mr Sunak and plotting the return of Boris Johnson on a “dream ticket” leadership bid with Nigel Farage.
