Former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak outside his home in London. Photo / AP
No one could deny that those who were backing Boris Johnson in the leadership contest know exactly who and what they were voting for. The same cannot necessarily be said for Rishi Sunak, a man whose career to date has been riddled with contradictions.
He was, for example, a committed Brexiteer who ignored warnings from David Cameron that backing Leave would end his career – yet he surrounds himself with Remainers and has failed to champion the Brexit dividend with anything approaching gusto.
He portrays himself as a free marketeer, yet he is best known as the author of the biggest state intervention in history. His supporters say he is a man of the people, while detractors characterise him as Davos Man. The list goes on.
If the former Chancellor is to win the ultimate prize he will need to shake off the “slippery Sunak” tag and convince Tory MPs – and probably Conservative Party members – of what he truly stands for.
One former Cabinet minister who is backing Sunak suggested that one of the former chancellor’s greatest attributes is “competence”, which in the current climate may well be enough to get him over the line. However, Johnson supporters are quick to claim that merely being competent is unlikely to win a general election.
What of his policies, his beliefs, his political soul?
During the last leadership contest, which Sunak lost heavily to Liz Truss, he promised that he would “govern as a Thatcherite” if he became prime minister. Was he simply name-dropping the Iron Lady to appeal to the Tory base?
“To be honest, that is the first time I can remember him actually talking about Thatcherite principles,” said one of his critics, pointing out that Sunak took the decision to increase corporation tax from 19 to 25 per cent, raised National Insurance by 1.25 percentage points and set Britain on a course for the highest tax burden since the 1960s.
Nonsense, say his supporters. “If you believe in sound money and balanced finances, you don’t get much more Thatcherite than that,” said one. “What he was proposing in the last leadership race was entirely Thatcherite, because he wanted to get the economy on a sound footing first, then cut taxes later.
“I’m afraid most of our colleagues never met Margaret Thatcher and have rewritten the history of her premiership so that they only mention the parts of it that suit the agenda they want.”
The same backer described Sunak as a “principled pragmatist” who believes in low taxes and a free market but who recognised during the coronavirus pandemic that massive state intervention, in the form of the furlough scheme, business loans and other measures, was the only possible way to save the economy.
They also pointed out that, unlike Liz Truss, whose downfall was the result of uncosted policies, Sunak was clear from the beginning that the hundreds of billions paid out during the pandemic would have to be paid back when it was over.
“He does have political ideals,” said the backer. “But there is a difference between an idealist and an idealogue.”
Brexit, of course, was very much a battle of political ideology. It is one of the more curious contradictions in Sunak’s career that he backed Leave but has been largely silent on the benefits of Brexit, whereas Liz Truss voted Remain but managed to reinvent herself as a Brexiteer.
“He hardly mentioned Brexit in his last leadership campaign,” said one minister who is backing Johnson. “Whenever I have spoken to him, I have never heard him marshal colleagues on the benefits of Brexit.
“He has surrounded himself with Cameron Remainer types like Oliver Dowden, Robert Jenrick and Gavin Williamson, and they seem to be his natural allies. That’s why his leadership campaign was so light on the Brexit dividend.
“And I’m not sure how many of his aides are members of the Conservative Party or have ever gone out campaigning and knocking on doors. How many of them understand the party?”
The riposte from Sunak’s supporters is that he put his career on the line by campaigning for Leave, but that he believes Brexit is now “behind us” and that “he doesn’t believe it’s the only issue in British politics”.
They insist that his friendship with Remainers is one of his greatest strengths as the party seeks a leader who can reach out to all of its factions – citing the support he has from such disparate individuals as arch-Remainer Simon Hoare and “hard man of Brexit” Steve Baker, as well as Right-wingers Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch.
His support within the party is clear, but another of the problems he faces is convincing voters that he is a man of the people rather than a “Davos Man” who prefers the company of economists, central bankers and former colleagues at Goldman Sachs.
It is one of the great ironies of Sunak’s political journey that a man who has the chance of becoming Britain’s first non-white prime minister is seen as the establishment candidate, while a white Old Etonian is regarded as the anti-establishment figure.
A 20-year-old video of a young Sunak telling the BBC that he had “friends who are aristocrats, friends who are upper class and friends who are working class – well, not working class…” has dogged him since it went viral online in the summer, as has his wife’s former non-domiciled status. However, those who know him insist he is far more down to earth than Johnson.
“Boris is far more impressed by the glamour and the glitter,” said one. “Rishi is the sort of person who would invite people to Number 11 for dinner and then do the cooking himself.”
It is, of course, true that Sunak came from a solidly middle-class background. His parents, both immigrants, worked hard as a doctor and a pharmacist to afford his school fees.
One of the best moments of his previous leadership campaign came when he passionately defended his parents’ decision to make personal sacrifices so they could send him to Winchester College, saying: “I am not going to apologise for what my parents did for me, you must be joking.”
The fact that Sunak is still seen by the public as the privileged head boy in the race, rather than as a success story of Conservative values, can only be a failure of communication though Sunak supporters insist his “Slick Rishi” nickname is unfair.
They claim that after the bluster and boosterism of Johnson and the robotic, chaotic Truss interlude, merely being competent is now mischaracterised as slickness.
Opponents say his slickness disguises a lack of detail, and that his previous campaign failed because it was based on negativity. They also claim he is a technocrat rather than a politician, and are able to cite plenty of evidence to back up their case.
Had he resigned when he was fined over partygate he would have put himself in a much stronger position to make a comeback. If he had allowed others to strike the fatal blow to Johnson’s premiership in the summer, rather than getting his own hands dirty, he might have beaten Truss, rather than being blamed – and hated – by many Conservative Party members for toppling their favourite.
Supporters of Johnson claim a “big political beast” is needed to turn around the party’s dire fortunes, and that Sunak’s political instincts will let him down when it comes to a general election. Only Johnson, they say, will be able to hold Red Wall seats. Sunak’s backers say he is the only candidate who will keep the all-important Blue Wall intact.
Sunak certainly seems to be learning from his mistakes. Having prepared his previous leadership bid months early by securing “Ready for Rishi” web domains, he has left this one to the last minute, and did it with a short written statement rather than the branded videos for which he is often mocked.
He also made himself invisible while Liz Truss blew up her own administration, rather than trying to force the issue himself as he did with Johnson.
His supporters hope he will win the race outright and enter No10 on Monday.
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