Armed with platters of picnic food from a posh butchers in his constituency, Rishi Sunak attempted to rally his MPs at a gathering in the Downing Street garden on Monday night.
But rather than pork pies from the Yorkshire Dales, it is a different kind of red meat his increasingly restless backbenchers are hungry for.
After getting a kicking in the local elections, many want the PM responsible for the highest tax burden since World War Two to stop talking about how he wants to cut taxes and actually get on with it.
In an awkward joke at the garden party, Mr Sunak told the MPs: "My commitment to delivery is such that I have had crates of food and drink delivered."
Yet backbenchers worried about losing their seats are concerned there will be little for them to show to voters at next year's election as Mr Sunak struggles to actually deliver on any of his five big pledges - to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce national debt, cut NHS waiting lists and stop migrant boats.
As one put it to me: “He steadied the ship after Liz Truss almost sent us all over board, but now we are slowly taking on water while heading nowhere.”
The Tory infighting that has dominated recent years mostly came to a halt when Mr Sunak snatched the keys to No10.
But after the party lost more than 1,000 councillors in catastrophic elections earlier this month, MPs are beginning to dust off their weapons as they fear it will be them out of a job next.
Those in the Conservative Growth Group, founded by diehard supporters of Ms Truss, are drawing up a list of demands for Mr Sunak, including a plan to cut or completely abolish inheritance.
“If the economy does not pick up and the Autumn Statement doesn’t contain some red meat you will see them push Rishi much more publicly,” says an ally of the former PM.
“At the moment it’s all very softly softly. They don’t want regime change, but they will start to put more pressure on him if they don’t see what they want.”
Supporters of another ousted PM also are finding their voices again.
At a conference in Bournemouth this weekend, Boris Johnson's biggest fans railed against Mr Sunak.
A senior Tory, who was at the gathering, said: “There is a lot of disaffection amongst the membership.”
Another put its more bluntly: “We told them to f*** off by not giving them a vote on who took over from Liz Truss as leader. Now we cannot persuade anyone to come out to campaign.
“At this rate the next election will be wannabe president Rishi Sunak dashing around in a helicopter with his face on as activists refuse to knock on doors.”
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