Robert Harris is right – Rishi Sunak’s popularity has entered ‘death valley’

Esteemed political commentator Robert Harris, the Fatherland author, tweeted a comment on today’s YouGov poll giving Labour a 27-point lead: “Death Valley.”

Of course, it is “just one poll”, from a company that tends to report larger Labour leads, and it is different from the recent seat-by-seat megapoll by the same organisation, which gave Labour a lead of half as much, 13.5 per cent. But it underlines Rishi Sunak’s failure to turn the Conservatives’ fortunes round.

He tried again in his news conference in Downing Street this morning, assembling journalists to deliver two unconvincing messages. “The Conservative Party is united,” he said. And: “This is an election year and the choice in that election is clear: stick with the plan that is working or go back to square one with Labour.”