Think Sunak’s finished? Here’s how he thinks he can take the fight to Starmer

As a trusted clique of ministers starts work on the Tory manifesto, John Rentoul looks at the issues they hope will cut through at the general election

The Labour leader is happy to wrap himself in the mantle of Tony Blair (PA)

Work on the Conservative manifesto is “more developed than anyone realises”, according to sources speaking to Katy Balls, The Spectator’s well-informed political editor.

This may be spin intended to counter recent reports that the government had been so distracted by firefighting that no one had given any thought to what the Tories might offer at the election.

But Balls’s sources did provide the names of ministers who are supposedly working on the document – Oliver Dowden, Michael Gove, Claire Coutinho and James Cleverly – and the special adviser in charge, James Nation, deputy head of the No 10 policy unit. They also said that the main themes of the manifesto are to go “very big” on tax and – even less surprisingly – to “focus on policy areas where they view Labour to be weak”.