Sunak must have lost his marbles to snub Greek PM

When Conservative MPs think the spat with Greece is a ploy to distract them from immigration policy, the prime minister has a problem, warns John Rentoul

Prime minister Rishi Sunak decided against meeting his Greek counterpart after he spoke publicly about wanting the return of the Elgin Marbles (PA)

Most British people think the Elgin marbles should go back to Greece. Of the rest, half don’t care and only half – 21 per cent – think that the UK should keep them. Appealing to that 21 per cent really would be a core-vote strategy.

So why did Rishi Sunak refuse to meet the Greek prime minister? The No 10 line is that Kyriakos Mitsotakis went back on a deal not to mention what he calls the Parthenon sculptures by going on TV last Sunday to say he wanted them back.

This would appear to be a misunderstanding of the basic rules of politics: if you do a deal with someone and they break it, you have to judge whether anyone else cares. Sunak should know this better than most because he has just been accused of reneging on a deal with Suella Braverman, the recent home secretary. Most people think he was right to sack her, even if a lot of them might agree with the policies that Braverman claims Sunak signed up to.