Sunak is spinning hopes of a hung parliament – but it won’t work this time

The PM’s message is in part intended to help the Tories keep their flagging spirits up, writes Andrew Grice. The trouble is: it’s just not 2015 again

The tactic worked at the 2015 election. It won’t work again (Getty)

Rishi Sunak is clutching at the thinnest of straws in claiming the results of last Thursday’s local elections point to a hung parliament.

After disastrous results for the Conservatives, the prime minister needed all the ammunition he could get, and gratefully received some from a Sky News projection of the “national equivalent vote” showing Labour would be 32 seats short of an overall majority if the local results were repeated at the general election.

Sunak’s message is in part intended to help the Tories keep their flagging spirits up. If his party thinks it has an outside chance of preventing a Labour majority, it might postpone its ideological battle over the Tories’ future direction until after the election.