“Who am I? Why am I here?“ As self-deprecating opening lines go, this one backfired. The year is 1992, the debate stage is set, and Admiral James Stockdale – a Vietnam War hero and vice presidential running mate of Ross Perot – has just introduced himself to the American people. Unfortunately, it had viewers unfairly wondering whether he himself knew the answer.
On the steps of 10 Downing Street, our autumn prime minister, Rishi Sunak, indulged in a similar rhetorical technique. He acknowledged it was “only right to explain why I am standing here“. But unlike Stockdale, Sunak already had power and a readymade response.
Moments earlier, his predecessor Liz Truss had delivered her final address, in which she typically admitted no faults. Sunak, however, saw things differently: “[S]ome mistakes were made... And I have been elected as leader of my party, and your prime minister, in part, to fix them.”
He went on to bury Boris Johnson too without mentioning him by name: “This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.” Oof.
Prime ministers, like football managers, rarely take over because things are going well. Sunak will be aware that his immediate challenge is to ensure the financial markets remain calm, first by overseeing a fiscal statement likely to include substantial spending cuts.
But he faces major political problems. First, which departments will lose out, at a time when public services seem to be held together by duct tape and baling wire? And second, how can he present himself as a fresh start when he sits atop a party that has been in office for 12 years?
John Major managed it. Major came as a welcome relief to many following a decade of Margaret Thatcher. He was also a fresh face compared with Labour leader Neil Kinnock, opposition leader for seven years by that point. Both factors helped him to secure the Tories a fourth successive term in 1992. Boris Johnson managed the same trick in 2019, in disowning the austerity of the previous decade before winning a majority. Can Sunak make it a three-peat?
Renewal in office is the elixir of electoral politics. Difficult to pull off, for sure, but no harder than winning from opposition. (Usual reminder that the last time a party with an overall majority was replaced at an election by another party with a majority was 1970.)
So this throws forward a challenge to Keir Starmer, still 30 points ahead in the polls. His task is to prevent Sunak from getting away with it. Labour released a video today that provides some insight into its thinking. The clip eschews attacking Sunak for his vast wealth, nor does it go after Johnson’s probity or Truss’s incompetence – they are yesterday’s people, after all.
Instead, it zeroes in on Sunak’s role throughout the last few years as chancellor, which ended not with sustained recovery but an economy headed south, buffeted by labour shortages, double-digit recession and outright hunger on the rise.
Sunak will no doubt enjoy a polling bounce. He may even keep some of it. But even the slickest of political storytellers would struggle to disassociate themselves from the disaster of the last year and the disappointments of the preceding 11. Why is Sunak here, again?
You can follow the live cabinet reshuffle here, check out the world leaders congratulating Sunak on his appointment (including some spectacular pronunciations by President Biden) and you can also read the prime minister’s speech in full.
Elsewhere in the paper, the campaigner Peter Tatchell was arrested by the Qatari security services today while protesting against the country’s treatment of LGBT people in the run-up to the World Cup. He has since been freed.
In the comment pages, Anna van Praagh says a vibe shift is underway with women, celebrity and making money like the men – and she is here for it. While Isobel van Dyke reports back on the dystopian reality of 50-question interviews: welcome to the hell of renting.
And finally, if you thought MPs on social media couldn’t get any cringier... well, take a look (yes, there’s plenty of Matt Hancock).
