Will the UK have a Coronation before 6th May 2023?

King Charles’ coronation will take place on 6th May next year. But might we see an earlier coronation in the Conservative Party? Liz Truss is in peril for delivering many of the policies that she promised her members. Some MPs are now openly debating whether they can unseat her and settle on a unity candidate to be crowned without another drawn-out contest. 

Talking to Conservatives this week, there appear three reasons why this might be difficult. 

1. There are already multiple candidates offering themselves as a putative unity candidate. That is an inauspicious start. Some believe that the members who picked Truss will choose them if it goes to a contest. Consequently, they may want to force their way into another leadership contest, rather than allow a colleague a free run. 
2. Rishi Sunak is the most likely compromise candidate but some of Boris Johnson’s holdout allies will never forgive him for his role in their hero’s demise. On top of which, a Sunak premiership may scupper the timeline for Johnson’s Churchill tribute-act comeback.  
3. They just don’t trust one other enough to agree on a single candidate. It’s difficult to overstate how little some Conservative MPs think of one another. There’s little comradeship in a parliament dominated by the Brexit fallout, months of remote working, and Johnson’s fall. When a fellow MP says, ‘Good Morning’ as they pass in the corridor, some now instinctively ask themselves ‘What did they really mean by that?’  

So, while establishment figures are now actively canvassing for their own version of an Accession Council, it remains difficult to confidently choreograph. Remarkably after the events of the past month, there may still be more than one candidate who fancies inheriting that Tory crown.