Sunak’s impending defeat is not all down to the twin disasters of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss…

…they certainly didn’t help, writes Andrew Grice – but there is another major player responsible for bringing down the PM: No 10 itself

Sunak has 32 ministers at his cabinet table – 23 full members and nine allowed to attend. PM Starmer, by contrast, may have one tight-knit gang of four... (Aaron Chown/PA Wire)

The history books will doubtless record that Rishi Sunak was dealt such an impossible hand – after the lies and chaos under Boris Johnson and economic disaster under Liz Truss – that no Conservative leader could have avoided defeat at this year’s election.

But there is another version of events: that Sunak, and several of his predecessors as prime minister, were held back by a dysfunctional, outdated system at the centre of government created in the 19th century.

These days 10 Downing Street is an increasingly presidential operation which tries to impose its will on weak Whitehall departments and ministers, but becomes sucked into day-to-day firefighting and crisis management. No 10 is small by international standards, and a PM doesn’t have the support they need.