Wipeout: from partygate to election apocalypse — the lies and cowardice that detonated the Tory party

It’s the tale of two Tories who blew up the party that won the last four elections — Boris Johnson, finally overwhelmed after Partygate and a lifetime of lies, and his economically reckless successor, Liz Truss. Together, writes Andrew Grice, they dealt Rishi Sunak an impossible hand and set a course for by-election humiliation and general election oblivion

Sunak knows that a full-frontal attack on Johnson or Truss would see their allies return fire (Getty)

“We are still being punished for Johnson and Truss,” one minister said ruefully as the Conservative Party surveyed the wreckage of its two crushing by-election defeats at Labour’s hands in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire.

One senior Tory who had canvassed in both contests said the “anger on the doorsteps” was not directed at Rishi Sunak but at “the last few years”. A Labour insider agreed, telling me: “The Tories are still paying the price for Partygate and the financial market crash.”

Although Sunak – remarkably – still hasn’t given up hope of defying political gravity by holding on to power at next year’s general election, many Tories think privately that his mission is now impossible. Minds are already turning to who will succeed him as Tory leader, and to a bitter inquest to establish who were the detonators who blew up a party that has won the last four elections.