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Was Rishi Sunak right all along?

The Tory Cassandra. Credit: Getty

October 31, 2024 - 7:00am

In his response to Wednesday’s Budget, we saw a flash of what Rishi Sunak could have been. His final appearance as Tory leader was energetic and animated. He cut into Labour’s tax plans incisively and buoyed the spirits of the Opposition MPs behind him. It was a side we rarely saw during his time in Downing Street, but it would have been welcome.

More than that, Sunak was once again proven correct. He had spent the summer warning that Labour would bring in unheralded tax rises, testing its pledges around “working people to the limit”. He was vindicated. It wasn’t the first time, either. In another contest two years ago, he spent a summer warning the world about his opponent’s plans, only to be roundly beaten before being proven right in the autumn. Unlike with Liz Truss, however, this time he won’t be handed a second chance.

Instead, it is now time for Sunak to ponder his legacy. For most prime ministers, it seems, being out of office reflects well on them. Theresa May has enjoyed a particular rehabilitation, perhaps in light of those who came after. For Rishi, you can see it shaping up already — more focus on the praise he received for his Covid-19 response as Chancellor, an acknowledgement that the Tory Party he took over was already sunk, added to those correct positions on the economy, and in hindsight he perhaps doesn’t look that bad.

Perhaps Sunak’s real tragedy was the speed of his ascendancy. It is really quite remarkable that he is a washed-up has-been of Westminster already. An ex-prime minister at just 44 years old, less than a decade after becoming an MP, is an amazing speed-run of political life. It is perhaps also a sign that the chaos of the Conservative Party wasted his talents.

Sunak had his strengths but was let down both by himself and by those around him. He took over a party that had worn through its talents and its enthusiasm for governing. His own limitations didn’t help. He had little instinct for what he wanted to do with power, making his government listless. He was also quite bad at politics, from making unforced errors such as the D-Day debacle to failing to find a proper strategic vision for his premiership.

With a little more time, he might have avoided this. He was party leader in a difficult time, but also before he was ready. He’d barely experienced general elections from the inside, nor had time in junior ministries to hone his political viewpoints. His radical rise, first to chancellor, then PM, came at the expense of learning the slower lessons of Westminster. In an alternative world, Sunak is perhaps an entrant in the current leadership contest, pitching to rebuild the party after someone else broke it.

Unfortunately for politicians, they don’t get to choose the hand dealt to them. The rapid rise and deep fall is probably not what Sunak would have planned for himself, but it’s what fortune thrust upon him. He might be commended for taking on the leadership in dire straits, but the records will always show the disastrous election he presided over. In the brutality of Westminster, being right rarely makes up for losing.

Sunak has used his time as leader of the Opposition as a useful valedictory. He has probably enjoyed it more than the difficulties of governing and has equipped himself well. It may not be enough to save his reputation, but it has perhaps been a glimpse of what he could have achieved in different circumstances. Now, he will likely slip into quiet on the backbenches and then out of Westminster altogether, his experience serving as a warning to the next Westminster wunderkind that too much too soon can be a disastrous thing.


John Oxley is a corporate strategist and political commentator. His Substack is Joxley Writes.

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Tyler Durden
Tyler Durden
2 hours ago

He was undone by manouevring to dispatch both B Johnson and Liz Truss. There was an absence of trust from the Right of the party after that. It almost felt as if they wanted Reform to give the liberal Tories a real punishing. Unfortunately, a truly ghastly Labour Party have been the recipients of such manoeuvres. The UK now has a government that represents a small fraction of its economy.

Norfolk Sceptic
Norfolk Sceptic
19 minutes ago
Reply to  Tyler Durden

Unlike with Liz Truss, Sunak didn’t get ambushed by the Bank of England.

Frances Killian
Frances Killian
2 hours ago

Kemi for leader, Rishi back to being Chancellor crunching financial policy, leaving the parliamentary drama to a firebrand. Probably won’t happen, sad because we seriously need people with genuine business experience.

Norfolk Sceptic
Norfolk Sceptic
15 minutes ago

It doesn’t matter who is driving the train when the wheels have broken off.

And working for Goldman Sachs and hedge funds gives you experience in Finance, not Business Experience.

Norfolk Sceptic
Norfolk Sceptic
12 minutes ago

We also need Industrial Experience.

Last edited 11 minutes ago by Norfolk Sceptic
Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
9 minutes ago

I suspect you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about! Goldman Sachs is certainly a business, which generates wealth and pays taxes, albeit that you (and I!) might have little understandings of what it actually does.

That’s the thing about capitalism – it is by now a very sophisticated system! The distinction between the “real economy” and finance is pretty meaningless in market terms, albeit it might well be that different sections of the population benefit differently from different types of business. Making money from selling services, that someone wants to buy (!) isn’t intrinsically less valuable than making money from selling stuff. And is for example the key industry today making steel as at one time it would have been?

Santiago Excilio
Santiago Excilio
2 hours ago

I think history will be kinder to Sunak than it will be to Johnson, Truss, and May. Yes he made some poor decisions: D-Day memorials, election timing, etc.
However, given the nature of the hospital pass he received, he did as good a job as possible. The Tory party was a spent force by the time he arrived and it’s electoral fate already sealed by 14 years of broken promises and centrist rot.
He’s got intellect – you don’t survive Winchester without that – I am sure he will re-materialise in the US somewhere in private equity or a hedge fund and spend time on the speaker circuit. In which regard he will fare much better than those who are left behind in the UK.

Norfolk Sceptic
Norfolk Sceptic
9 minutes ago

Truss was ambushed by the Bank of England and promoted the North Sea Oil/Gas Industry, and domestic Fraccing, a sign that she recognised that Hope is best fueled by cheap Energy.

She should return to the fray.

Yes, Sunak is a hedge fund animal.

2 plus 2 equals 4
2 plus 2 equals 4
1 hour ago

I suspect the reason Sunak appeared not to have a strategy for government is that he didn’t.
He’s a very rich man married into an even richer family. Who will now go on to leverage his connections to get even richer in some sort of consultant ambassador type role.
None of which necessarily makes him a bad person. But being PM was really just a line on his CV. Like a future business leader being put in charge of a junior department to tick the experience and credibility boxes.

charlie martell
charlie martell
1 hour ago

He badly wanted to be PM, but once he got there, with a lot of help from his cronies’ and his own behind the scenes manoeuvering, he didn’t really know what he wanted to do.

He ducked a lot of decisions and followed the ghastly Net Zero scam almost to the letter.