How to react to unfolding calamity? Tory MPs took different approaches. “Disastrous. Worse than I expected and pointing to a total wipeout.” That’s how one Conservative MP – and not one of the disaffected usual suspects – summed up the local election results to me as the gloom deepened on Saturday. Others preferred to focus on how football teams were doing.

Then there were some game attempts at spin – “Labour are tracking Cameron in 2009, ended up not getting a majority,” said one – but they were few and far between. After Andy Street’s defeat in the West Midlands, the last filigree traces of a silver lining vanished.

For months, there has been speculation that a rout in the local elections would lead to an attempt to oust Rishi Sunak. Yet so far, at least, there is no sign of it. “There’s a defeatism to the party,” offered one minister by way of explanation.

In truth, the barriers to a putsch were always formidable. The prime minister has the ultimate job security: that none of his would-be successors want his job now. Various leadership campaigns are already running, behind the scenes, but all with an eye to a contest after the general election. Nobody is keen to be the face attached to what is........

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