OPINION - Thursday's local elections could go so badly for Rishi Sunak that he calls a June election

A glut of local and mayoral elections rarely offers relief for parties which have been in power for a long time. With omens of general election doom clustering over the Conservatives like ravens in Macbeth, this Thursday looks especially murderous. There is a “dash of the disillusioned” — Dan Poulter’s exit lambasting the state of mental health provision providing a useful Labour acquisition as the “party of the NHS”.