HE has only been Prime Minister for a couple of weeks, but already it seems clear that Rishi Sunak will be unable to save the Conservative Party from itself. A new poll from Ipsos MORI has found that, unlike his disastrous predecessor Liz Truss, Sunak is enjoying a honeymoon period in the polls, bringing with it a boost in public support. Sadly for Sunak, and to the immense relief of everyone else, this does not come close to putting the Tories in the position where they might reasonably expect to win the next General Election.

Much of this polling boost is undoubtedly due to widespread public relief that the truly appalling Truss has gone but it has not yet sunk in that her brand of cruel and callous hard-right opportunism is still very much present in Rishi Sunak's government. The Conservative leopard might have changed its leader but it has not changed its spots and it still wants to devour your children.

READ MORE: London overtaken by Paris as Europe's largest stock market

Although it is early days for Sunak, questions about his poor judgement and obvious weak position within the Conservative Party have been persistent and new questions continue to crop up. Within a day of his coronation, Sunak was having to deal with questions about why he had reappointed the truly appalling Suella Braverman to the Home Office just six days after she had been forced to resign due to what later transpired to be serial security breaches. It was evident that Sunak had appointed her not because he believed that she was the best person for the job, or even remotely competent, but because he was desperate to shore up his position on the hard right of the Conservative party.

This misstep was quickly followed by a humiliating U-turn when Sunak reversed his decision not to attend the COP27 climate summit in Egypt after Boris Johnson announced that he would be going in a personal capacity. The U-turn reinforced the image of a politically weak Sunak who was chasing after his predecessor and former boss. While at the summit, Sunak delivered a bland speech with all the impact of a damp piece of toilet paper falling from the immense height of a couple of inches, which coincidentally is the distance between the hem of Sunak's trousers and his ankles.

He soon found himself mired in more controversy as multiple allegations surfaced about bullying behaviour by Gavin Williamson, Sunak's minister without portfolio. These included allegations that Williamson had told a civil servant to “slit your throat” and "jump out of a window”. Williamson, who like Braverman had previously been forced out of office for breach in security, denies the allegations but resigned in order, he claimed, to “avoid becoming a distraction”. It soon became apparent that knowledge about Williamson's underhand and downright nasty behaviour was widespread in the parliamentary Conservative party, throwing into doubt both Sunak's protestations that he knew nothing about them, and his claim upon taking office that he was determined to restore integrity and accountability to government.

Given that everyone else in the Westminster Conservative party was well aware of the stories about Williamson's allegedly dreadful behaviour, for Sunak to protest his ignorance after the allegations became public knowledge can only mean either that Sunak was being duplicitous and dishonest, or that he is hopelessly out of touch with his own party. Neither inspires confidence in a new Prime Minister who has no personal mandate from the wider electorate and who was voted into office by precisely no one.

This week fresh allegations continue to surface, this time about alleged bullying by Dominic Raab, Sunak's deputy prime minister and a man who channels the energy of the middle manager of a sportswear chain who has buried his mistress under the patio. Sunak says he does “not recognise” the bullying claims against Dominic Raab. Multiple civil servants have alleged that Raab was guilty of bullying or harassment. According to ITV News, eight people who worked in Raab’s private office when he was foreign secretary have claimed that they have suffered bullying or harassment at work.

Senior civil servant Simon McDonald, who was the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office when Raab was in charge there has agreed that the allegations are plausible. This is a story which has only just got started and has a while to run yet, as it does, it calls Sunak's judgement even further into question.

All this is under the shadow of the budget statement that Jeremy Hunt is due to make later this week, a statement widely trailed to contain tax rises and swinging cuts to public spending. When it is announced, Sunak's public standing will take another battering and his short-lived honeymoon with the voters will be well and truly over.