Simon Clarke makes Maggie Throup look competent as chancellor leaves him to take flak for budget briefing
Let’s be generous. Rishi Sunak has had a lot on his plate. First he has had to be photographed in his hoodie – so very casual, so very multimillionaire man of the people. Then he has had to be photographed exercising on his Peloton bike. Then he has had to be photographed being photographed. You can’t get too meta in your attention to detail when you’re lining yourself up to be the next leader of the Tory party.
Then there’s the budget. Not the writing of it. That was completed a while ago. It’s been the briefing of it that has been so time-consuming. All those Brand Rishi – the new logo had cost a fortune – emails that had to be sent. Press releases coordinated to be sent out at precise times on different days with different embargos. All to make sure the media were talking about nothing but Rishi and his budget in the seven days leading up to the day of the budget itself. And, astonishingly, all of the news had been good news. He’d looked for some bad stuff to send out – in the interests of balance and all that – but there just hadn’t been any to find. I guess that’s the kind of luck you get when You Are The Man.
