If the Tories are to survive they must stop the infighting and rally behind Rishi Sunak

Editorial: It is no coincidence that much of the manoeuvring involves Tory figures with a personal grudge against Rishi Sunak, and who seem willing to put self-interest above the party’s interest

The local elections have left the Tories at a fork in the road (PA)

Rishi Sunak is coming under growing pressure from his own party as its dire results at the local elections in England sink in. Conservative MPs who fear they may lose their seats at the general election claim he is merely “managing decline”.

The criticism surfaced at the launch conference of the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO) in Bournemouth on Saturday. Officially, the group’s aim is to give grassroots Tory members more influence. Unofficially, it is the remaining fan club of Boris Johnson and its members believe he was unfairly pushed out of Downing Street. The group’s barely concealed agenda is to see him return there, but that is likely to remain a distant dream.

CDO leaders have a point when they claim Mr Sunak did not secure a mandate from party members, who did not get a vote when a ballot among Tory MPs last October left him as the only nomination to succeed Liz Truss. But the MPs did the right thing; the antidote to the chaos and turbulence of the Johnson and Truss regimes could not be Mr Johnson, who flirted with a comeback.