Tory MPs limp into PMQs after finally accepting their fate | John Crace

Were you to be completely clueless about the reality of current UK politics, you might have thought that all was well with the Conservatives as they gathered for the first prime minister’s questions since the Easter recess.

The backbenches were almost full and MPs managed to rise to a throaty roar of approval when Rishi Sunak took his place in the chamber.

What we were getting was not a battle of equals, but the spectacle of a prime minister who has always been out of his depth and is now getting his arse handed to him on a plate yet again.

So he found himself babbling in desperation, hoping if he carried on talking for long enough he might alight on some sentences that bordered on coherence.

It was Labour’s fault that local authorities were going to have to increase council tax because their money from central government had been cut.

And Liz Truss’s crowning achievement had been the Australian and New Zealand trade deals that Sunak had previously rubbished.