Simon Clarke’s call this week for Rishi Sunak to go didn’t exactly inspire others to follow. Instead, it’s had a unifying effect on the Tory party. ‘He’s given us all a common cause to rally behind: uniting against him,’ says a former cabinet minister.

After the publication of Clarke’s Daily Telegraph op-ed declaring that ‘it is now beyond doubt that whilst the Prime Minister is far from solely responsible for our present predicament, his uninspiring leadership is the main obstacle to our recovery’, Clarke has received criticism from all sides.