and as it is always to say when the rust set in, I think the defining moment was the immediate aftermath of Boris Johnson‘s resignation on July 7. Facing the rubble of what amounted to an ethics crash — the long-running disaster of partygate and the allegations of sexual misconduct leveled at former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher — the Conservative leadership contenders tacitly agreed on a wretched collective strategy: what more or less was to ignore the huge problem of trust, standards in public life and the specter of sleaze, and instead have a whole separate debate about tax cuts.
Liz Truusyou will remember, was in favor of tax cuts. Rishi Sunak, on the other hand, held its own against the ‘fairytale economy’. Sunak was right, but Truss was declared the victor on September 5.
More to the point, neither had much to say about the ethical meltdown that the match had caused in the first place. Truss launched her mad economic experiment with her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, lasting only 49 days in issue #10. Sunak quickly took her place on October 25.
Why does this matter now? Because it is the failure to face the main reason for Johnson’s downfall last summer that now haunts the prime minister again. Yesterday at a hospital in Darlington, Sunak struggled to draw a line under the controversy over the tax affairs of Nadhim Zahawi, the former Conservative chairman. “I said very clearly that the case was worthy of independent counsel [Sir Laurie Magnus] to launch an investigation,” the Prime Minister said. “I think it’s important that we establish the facts, get to the truth of what happened. Once I received that information, I acted decisively and quickly, and that’s that.
But that is not it. Zahawi may have been fired from the cabinet, but he’s still very much maneuvering; furious that, as he sees it, Sir Laurie has not given him sufficient time to explain the timeline of his dealings with HMRC.
Inevitably, the former chairman (who notably failed to apologize in his letter to Sunak) will continue to be irritating, to say the least. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown isn’t the only senior Tory who thinks he should step down from his Stratford-Upon-Avon seat – although the very last thing Sunak needs now is a by-election.
Nor, as his spinners ludicrously insist, has the debacle not tarnished the Prime Minister’s credentials as a strong leader. It was clear that Zahawi’s position was untenable before Sir Laurie’s report had even come into use – at the latest on 20 January, when it emerged that he had paid a fine to HMRC. Still, Sunak, fearful of his troublesome parliamentary party, chose to postpone it.
Soon he will have to deal with the findings of Adam Tolley KC, who has been investigating multiple allegations of bullying against the Deputy Prime Minister, Dominic Raab. Sunak is already under fire for Raab’s reappointment in October, despite the file of formal complaints against him.
Labor smells blood and is also arguing over the reappointment of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary just days after she was forced to resign over a breach of government security rules.
And why did Sunak bring her back to the Ministry of Interior? Because he desperately needed her support during the crazy weekend of October 22-23, when Johnson planned to quickly return to No. 10. Braverman supported Sunak and was duly rewarded.
As he approaches his 100th day in office on Thursday, none of this supports the Prime Minister’s claim that he leads a government of “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level”. Truss and Johnson’s allies are feeling weak and looking forward to the potential disaster of May’s local elections.
Used to be Vladimir Putin seriously when he – as Johnson says in a new BBC documentary – threatened to fire “a missile” at the then prime minister in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine? What is certain is that the story anchors the idea of Boris, the geopolitical Big Dog – what his supporters want and exactly what Sunak fears.
By not addressing the problems he has now inherited as prime minister at the outset and presenting himself as a “sleaze buster” from day one of his first candidacy for leadership, Sunak only saved trouble for himself later on. Well, now trouble surrounds him and draws closer. “That” is definitely not “that”.