Dame Andrea Jenkyns calls on Tories to unite against Rishi Sunak after YouGov poll

A Conservative MP has called on colleagues to "wake up" and submit letters of no confidence in Rishi Sunak after a new poll showed the party faced electoral disaster.

Dame Andrea Jenkyns, the MP for Morley and Outwood in West Yorkshire and a staunch Boris Johnson supporter, took to X, formerly Twitter, to urge her fellow Tories to "get our party back".

It follows a YouGov poll suggesting the Conservatives could face virtual wipeout and hand Labour a 120-seat majority at the next general election.

Ms Jenkyns wrote: "Conservative MPs, given the latest polling are you now going to wake-up & put your vote of no confidence letters in too?

"Nothing to lose, we have a GE this year anyway. Time to get our party back & be real Conservatives."

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In a swipe at Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer she added the party needed to unite to "save our country from the commies who backed Corbyn!"

The latest polling, reported by the Telegraph, indicated that every so-called "red wall" seat won by Boris Johnson in 2019 could be lost at the general election this year.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt could be one of 11 Cabinet ministers to lose their seats in what would be the biggest collapse in support for a governing party since 1906, according to the Telegraph.

Among the other top Tories said to be on course to lose their seats are Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt and Attorney General Victoria Prentis.

Simon Clarke, who was a Cabinet minister under Liz Truss, said the result would be a "disaster".

"The time for half measures is over," he wrote on social media. "We either deliver on small boats or we will be destroyed."

Ms Jenkyns, who served as minister for skills under Boris Johnson, has been a vocal opponent of Mr Sunak, who she blamed for Mr Johnson's removal as party leader.

In November she submitted her own letter of no confidence to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the influential 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs.

The letter accused Mr Sunak of "Machiavellian involvement in getting rid of our democratically elected leader".

It added: "Enough is enough. If it wasn't bad enough that we have a party leader that the party members rejected, the polls demonstrate that the public reject him, and I am in full agreement. It is time for Rishi Sunak to go."

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