Simon Jenkins’ analysis sets out with clarity the trouble that Boris Johnson is in (Boris Johnson’s guilt is beyond doubt. There is no way back from this, 21 April). His treatment of Rishi Sunak, however, is inexcusably generous and looks alarmingly like support for his candidacy should Johnson do the decent thing and resign.
Jenkins describes Sunak as an inexperienced but competent chancellor who has made mistakes and faces the toughest challenge in a generation. This ignores or at best glosses over the seriousness of those mistakes: the green card, his failure to recognise or understand the desperate plight of so many, his failure to grasp the significance of his wife’s tax affairs, the disastrous spring statement etc.
Worse still, Jenkins goes on to assert, without any supporting argument or evidence, that Sunak “did not deserve to be paraded as Johnson’s accomplice in the last fixed-penalty ritual”. It is difficult to see what distinguishes Sunak from Johnson here; the two men in the two greatest offices of state are guilty of the same offence.
If Johnson goes, as he should, and Sunak were to replace him, Keir Starmer would have another readymade wounded target to torment at prime minister’s questions. Surely even this incompetent bunch that passes for a government can see that.
Colin Jones
West Norwood, London
