No Respite for Sunak as His Gaffes Blunt Tory Attacks on Labour

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(Bloomberg) — An ugly row with the family of a murdered teenager and an on-air bet about deporting asylum-seekers summed up another week to forget for Rishi Sunak as time ticks down to a UK election. Within days, he may be adding a recession, higher inflation and the loss of two Parliament seats to the list.

The setbacks are coming at a critical time for the prime minister, as officials in the Conservative Party grow more concerned about his struggle to establish a winning election campaign narrative. Trailing the Labour Party in the polls, the Tory plan was to spend the opening weeks of 2024 drumming into voters that the economy is turning the corner and that they should stick with Sunak rather than returning to “square one” with opposition leader Keir Starmer.