Three rings of Tory power have emerged – but there’s only one Rishi Sunak to bind them

Can Sunak please them all? Of course he can’t, writes Marie Le Conte

It is fair to say that Rishi Sunak doesn’t have the strongest of hands as prime minister (REUTERS)

[WARNING: You are about to enter a lengthy and overwrought metaphor. Please proceed with caution.]

It is 11pm on a Saturday night and you are surrounded by your university friends. They have come from out of town to visit you and, right this moment, they are all cross with you. You’d collectively agreed to go to a pub earlier in the evening but it has now closed, and you had made no plans for what was meant to come afterwards.

Some people want to go dancing in a nearby club. Others would like to join the raucous-sounding house party someone in the pub invited you all to. More than a few would like to return to your flat and have some quieter drinks there, without interlopers.