With cheap gimmicks and reheated policies, the game is up for Sunak and this Tory government- Christine Jardine

Stick a fork in this Conservative Government, they’re done.

That might seem flippant but frankly for me it sums up perfectly where we are following the disappointment of the King’s Speech last week.

No offence to His Majesty whose contribution was exemplary.

But I have pored over the plans announced for this session – both the speech text and the longer bill outlines - in search of anything to help my constituents.

Perhaps, I hoped, that section was written in particularly small font.

But no. No sign.

Unless of course you happen to be an entrepreneur in either AI or the oil industry who likes to use pedal cabs when you’re in London. In which case, there are two bills which turn it into an early Christmas treat.

For the rest of us there don't even seem to be many scraps.

Perhaps it was the energy bill that annoyed me the most.

I know all the arguments about energy security and protecting the jobs and technical know-how of the oil industry while we transition to green economy.

I have made most of them at one time or another.

But when the energy minister admits that not only will the planned Petroleum Licensing Bill do nothing to help households this winter, but that was not the intention, what can you say?

On top of which it’s not even necessary. The Government currently has the power to issue as many licences as it likes, whenever it likes.

I wanted to see urgent action to invest in public transport, improve support for bereaved young people, and help our major industries like hospitality and tourism.

Week after week in my constituency people come to us with heartbreaking issues over the cost of living and housing shortages that responsible government action could help alleviate.

Instead, we got the fewest bills in a monarch’s speech since 2014 and all Rishi Sunak had to offer was cheap gimmicks and reheated policies.

And it is not just their opponents like myself who will be disappointed – there are manifesto commitments promised to their voters in 2017 and 2019 that have yet to materialise.

Though some of them we can be glad we haven’t seen.

For more than six years now it has felt as if the country was being hit by crisis after crisis.

Brexit, Covid, Ukraine, energy prices and economic crises.

Now while the international community struggles to offer humanitarian support to those traumatised by horrific attacks and hostage taking by Hamas followed by the war in Gaza, the Home Secretary seems more intent on arguing with police authorities than helping them tackle the growing problems of antisemitism and islamophobia.

There are good people on the Conservative benches, and I appreciate they may be just as uncomfortable with their lack of leadership as the rest of us.

I am afraid time has run out for them to do something about it. I suppose there may be tax incentives to come in a giveaway autumn statement or budget.

But in the corridors of Westminster, on the streets of Edinburgh and across the UK this week there was a feeling that the game is up.

This Tory Government and this Prime Minister are done.

The sooner the country can put an end to this agony at the polls the better.