Britain’s Rishi Sunak struggles with missteps while trying to lift Conservatives ahead of elections

LONDON — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has presented himself as a thorough, evidence-based person throughout his relatively brief political career, but there has always been a lingering question about the sharpness of his political antenna.

The general election campaign of the last five weeks has clearly demonstrated that he does not have the instinctive touch of some of his predecessors, such as Tony Blair or even Boris Johnson.

Sunak’s campaign has seen several missteps since announced July 4 election date in pouring rain at the end of May, including the suspension of candidates mired in a scandal over betting on the election date, a week later Labor Party leader Keir Starmer He pressured him to do it.

The biggest mistake, which led him to apologize, was his decision to Leave the commemorations of 80 years of D-Day in northern France early on June 6..

Critics said the decision to skip the international event that closed the commemorations showed a lack of respect for veterans and diminished the UK’s international standing. Other world leaders were present, including President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Like Starmer, favorite to replace Sunak as prime minister.

Since then, Sunak has failed to improve his Conservative Party’s popularity ratings, which have been depressed in recent years as a result of the actions of his two immediate predecessors.

First, Johnson was forced to resign after being found guilty of lying to Parliament about breaches of coronavirus lockdowns at his Downing Street offices. Confidence in the Conservatives then collapsed during the chaotic (and traumatic) 49-day leadership of Liz Truss, whose unfunded tax cuts choppy financial markets and caused borrowing costs to skyrocket.

Opinion polls suggest the Conservatives are likely to lose power for the first time in 14 years.

“The Conservatives urgently needed to give leader Sunak’s endorsements a boost or their leader-focused campaign risks reinforcing weakness rather than building strength,” said Rob Ford, a political scientist at the University of Manchester. “Yet a clumsy and error-ridden Sunak campaign has failed to change the dial on leadership approval.”

It must be said that Sunak is not the most experienced campaigner. He has only been a member of parliament since 2015 and has never featured prominently, let alone fronted, in a general election campaign.

Sunak became prime minister in October 2022 when he presented himself as a steady pair of hands to replace Truss. He has reminded voters that he had warned Conservative Party members about the recklessness of Truss’s economic plan when he challenged her to succeed Johnson.

“I was right at the time when I warned about Liz Truss,” he said. “That’s why you all can trust me now.”

Replacing Truss after a battle for the undisputed leadership, Sunak became Britain’s first black leader, the first Indian to become prime minister and, at 42, the youngest leader in more than 200 years. .

Sunak, now 44, had enjoyed a rapid rise to the top within the Conservative ranks. He was plucked seemingly out of nowhere four years ago to become Treasury chief on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a matter of weeks, he had to present the largest economic support package ever for a non-war Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Gentle, confident and comfortable with the advancement of modern technology, he was nicknamed “Dishy Rishi” and quickly became one of the most trusted and popular faces within the Johnson administration during the rigors of the pandemic.

As Treasury chief, Sunak was praised for implementing a COVID-19 job retention package that arguably saved millions of jobs. But it came at a cost: It pushed the country’s tax burden to its highest level since the 1940s.

That’s not something he’s particularly comfortable with. Sunak is instinctively a low-tax, small-state politician who idolizes former prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

In his 20 months as prime minister, Sunak has struggled to control bitter divisions within his Conservative Party. One side wants him to be much tougher on immigration and bolder on cutting taxes, while another urged him to move more towards the center of politics, the space where, historically, British elections are won.

Sunak was born in 1980 in Southampton, on the south coast of England, to parents of Indian descent, both born in East Africa. His father was a family doctor and his mother ran a pharmacy, with which he often helped with the accounts.

He has described how his parents saved up to send him to Winchester College, one of the most expensive boarding schools in Britain. He then went to Oxford University to study politics, philosophy and economics, the career chosen by future prime ministers.

He then earned an MBA at Stanford University, which proved to be a launching pad for his subsequent career as a hedge fund manager at Goldman Sachs in the US. There he met his wife, Akshata Murty, the daughter of the billionaire founder from the Indian technology giant. Infosys. They have two daughters.

The couple are the richest residents of 10 Downing Street so far, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2024, with an estimated fortune of £651 million ($815 million). They are even richer than King Charles III, a level of wealth that Labor leader Starmer He says, it causes Sunak to lose touch with the everyday realities and struggles of workers.