The Conservatives’ unpopular policies will lead to private opulence and public squalor. It’s a recipe for disunity
Rishi Sunak’s first day in office saw him purge his Conservative opponents from government – and damn his predecessors with faint praise. He said Liz Truss had the right idea to improve Britain’s economic growth rate, but she was not up to the job. His message to Boris Johnson was no less brutal. In an artful critique, Mr Sunak said Mr Johnson became Britain’s prime minister – not its president – by winning the 2019 election. The mandate, he pointedly said, was not a personal one, but belongs to “all of us”. Mr Sunak – whose political career appeared stalled, if not over, two months ago – could be excused for gloating. But excessive self-confidence will only harden the resolve of his Commons adversaries.
Ms Truss and Mr Johnson are figures shrunken by events. Yet both remain lightning conductors for dissent. While Mr Johnson tweeted his congratulations to the new prime minister, Ms Truss, in her speech outside Downing Street, showed no sign of contrition for her calamitous time in office. Instead, she doubled down on her argument that cutting taxes was the route to growth, defiantly quoting the Roman philosopher Seneca’s words that “it is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” She signalled that Mr Sunak would be looking for trouble if he were to drop commitments to Brexit “freedoms” and defence spending.
