‘He sits on the fence’: Starmer under pressure after Uxbridge as Tories tackle mission impossible

Labour takes in lessons of Ulez debacle while Sunak emboldened to put clear blue water between parties after byelection results

Read more: the general election will be a referendum on Sunak, not Ulez

As a beaming Rishi Sunak appeared for a fleeting early morning media clip in Ruislip's Rumbling Tum cafe in west London on Friday, anyone tucking into their fry-ups who was unaware of the results of last week's three byelections could have been forgiven for thinking that the prime minister had secured a huge breakthrough.

The Labour party has been acting like it's a done deal - the people of Uxbridge just told all of them that it's not," he told the film crew in his brief visit. When confronted with the actual reality of the Labour party, when there's an actual choice on a matter of substance at stake, people vote Conservative."