Another week, another poll, this one delivered just in time for Easter to dash what little hope remained of a resurrection of the Conservative Party’s electoral chances.
The large-scale Survation survey conducted for Best for Britain looks at the country seat by seat and shows the Tories could be in for their worst election result, winning under 100 seats while Labour could walk away with 468 – a 286 seat majority.
This has amplified talk which had been taking place largely on the fringes of the party about removing the Prime Minister after the May elections if the losses are as bad as expected. Until this point, most Conservative MPs recognised that swapping leaders again would only drive their popularity further into the ground, but there is the potential for a tipping point if things continue to get worse.
If MPs fear losses on the scale predicted by this poll, they may be more willing to throw everything at attempts to prevent near-wipeout, which would make a Tory comeback within the next five years very difficult indeed.
So what can the Prime Minister do about it? Most will say very little – the country has stopped listening and even a new leader would likely only........