'Expecting a new start with Sunak? Prepare to be disillusioned'

Of course, in comparison to the nightmare weeks of the Truss regime, anything was going to be an improvement and Sunak did give the appearance of a “break from the past” – even if that break was for only six weeks ago. He was, it has to be remembered, a strong and prominent supporter of Boris Johnson’s scandal-strewn two years in office – that is until he wasn’t.

But back to the present and why is Sunak, who briefly looked so squeaky clean, now looking somewhat tarnished?

First, has been the brazen appointment of Suella Braverman to her old job at the Home Office, less than a week after she’d been sacked for what the Sir Jake Berry, who at the time was chairman of the Conservative Party, described as multiple breaches of the ministerial code, including some relating to cybersecurity.

So why did Sunak do it? Surely he could not have been a fan of Braverman, particularly with regard to her approach to migration issues.

He, like Liz Truss, wanted an increase in immigration for certain categories of workers as part of their growth agenda. Braverman is against virtually all immigration, indeed she told the Conservative Party Conference just a few weeks ago that she “dreamed” of seeing newspaper headlines declaring that planes full of cross-channel migrants were taking off, bound for Rwanda.

No, Sunak appointed her, in the words of Sir Keir Starmer, as part of a “grubby deal” to secure her vote, and the votes of the hard-line Brexiteers because late last Sunday, a panicky Sunak feared those votes might be going to Johnson which could have denied him the chance of winning the big prize.

But it’s not just been the appointment of Braverman that will have disappointed those looking for a “new beginning”.

The decision to keep in place, or restore to office, some of Johnson’s and Truss’s least competent ministers would have disappointed – James Cleverly, Dominic Raab and Gavin Williamson, to name but a few. Sunak is no fool, he knows their true worth but he decided to put party before country by trying to keep all Tory factions on board.

He also, disappointingly, has refused to go to the vital Climate Change summit in Egypt this weekend – Cop 27. While presidents Biden and Macron considered the meeting important enough to attend, Sunak signalled his commitment to the environment by staying away, kowtowing to the climate sceptics on the far right of Tories and again putting party before country (or even planet), just like all five of his immediate predecessors.

But why all five?

Cameron called a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, not because the country was crying out for one – at the time of the 2015 election Europe wasn’t even in the top ten of most voters’ concerns. He did it because he feared that Ukip (remember them?) were cutting into the Tories’ vote, and he hoped a referendum pledge would safeguard Tory seats.

Theresa May qualifies because in negotiating our withdrawal from the EU she allowed herself to be captured by the hard-line Brexiteers of the so-called European Research Group (I’m still waiting to read their first piece of “research”).

This meant that she pursued the hardest of Brexits – ie no membership of the Single Market nor the Customs Union – making a cross-party deal unattainable and ultimately leading to her demise.

Johnson’s term in office will baffle historians. He made lots of noise, lied a bit, partied a bit more but, in terms of lasting impact, achieved little.

His supporters talk about getting Brexit done but that amounted to leaving with virtually no workable deal in place (as events in Northern Ireland are currently demonstrating). Much has been made about his “achievements” during the pandemic, but according to the World Health Organisation’s latest figures, our Covid death rate is now higher than the European average.

As for Truss, what can one say? She modelled herself on Margaret Thatcher but forgot one of the iron lady’s oft repeated mantras – “you can’t buck the market” – which is exactly what Truss tried to do and fell flat on her face.

At least Sunak, and the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, recognised this simple fact and, as a result have hopefully saved the economy from crashing, creating the prospect (no matter how faint) of a Conservative victory at the next election.

But whether the voters will be as forgiving as Sunak has been to Braverman, remains to be seen.

Ivor Gaber is professor of political journalism at the University of Sussex and a former political correspondent based at Westminster