Smash him. Go for the jugular. Take the gloves off and hit him with the big one. We have nothing to lose. A sure sign of political panic is when the kids in the backroom take control of tactics and use the language of the big fight.
But who is it that Rishi Sunak is reportedly being advised to smash? The gossip from anonymous “advisers” is that he should get nasty with Keir Starmer. They have been impressed by how unsettled Starmer was by an interviewer reminding him of his support for his predecessor as Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, in 2019. And Sunak is also now threatened by the ghostly voice of Brexit, Nigel Farage, reincarnated as the leader of Reform.
Farage today put forward Reform’s “contract” of pledges. Bereft of anything original to say, he merely promised to abolish immigration before trotting out a series of extravagant expenditures. It was little more than a general election spoof, with everything to be paid for by cuts to government spending (which cuts, of course, were largely unspecified). As with Brexit’s supposed saving of £350m a week, these sorts of promises should be banned.
Sunak is ostensibly running against two opponents. Starmer has the backing of just over a third of the electorate, Farage of under a fifth, roughly similar to Sunak’s own support, which is now lower for the Tories than at any point in polling history. None of these percentages are reliable predictors of seats in the House of Commons, as we saw with the wildly miscalculated 2015 election. Voters appear to tell pollsters whom they like rather than whom they will vote for.
As for Sunak’s response, if there is one lesson to be had from the rise of populist politicians, from Johnson and Farage to France’s Marine Le Pen and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, it is that authentic likability works. Johnson was popular when being himself as a standup comedian. Farage may talk vacuous nonsense, but when acting as just a bloke in a pub, he can seem natural and amusing. Meloni apparently makes audiences laugh.
This is not allowed to be Sunak’s style. His youthful staff, desperately lacking in political experience, send him leaping out of dump trucks in hi-vis jackets, mouthing cardboard cliches. It rings untrue. From the start, his policy on coming to Downing Street was to square with the public over his predicament. He had to lead Britain through its most difficult period in half a century. Healing the wounds of Brexit would be a struggle. Fighting the pandemic would be a bigger one, indeed unprecedented. Of course mistakes were made but he tried his best.
Given the UK’s first past the post system, Farage’s party is unlikely to garner enough support in the Commons to be more than a passing nuisance to a Tory opposition. He would not succeed in a coup for the Tory leadership. Sunak can ignore him. As for Starmer, Sunak should treat him with courtesy. He will gain nothing from doing what his advisers appear to be telling him to do, which is to act the school bully. Starmer is a man he may soon have to congratulate across the dispatch box. Being rude to him now is not worth a handful of extra votes.
In his future career Sunak will benefit from having conducted himself in the highest office in the land with maturity and dignity. One lesson to learn in politics is that the gulf between success and failure is best filled by sound advice. Sunak is not getting it.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
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