Rishi Sunak ‘fighting the wrong campaign’ as he puts his hopes in Boris Johnson

As Rishi Sunak dashed to the South West to try to shore up Tory seats and praised an intervention by Boris Johnson, former chancellor George Osborne warned him he is ‘fighting the wrong campaign’

Rishi Sunak was warned he is “fighting the wrong campaign” as he has placed his hopes on an intervention by Boris Johnson to try to stave off an election meltdown.

The prime minister today took a trip to southwest England in a bid to rescue seats from a pincer movement by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK on the right and Labour and the Liberal Democrats on the left.

But as Mr Sunak was openly mocked by his rivals over images of him speaking on straw bales and sheep running away when he tried to feed them, former chancellor George Osborne, who ran the winning election campaigns in 2010 and 2015, heaped criticism on the beleaguered prime minister.