Robert Peston Robert Peston

No wonder Rishi Sunak is thriving under Boris Johnson

As you know, I misspent much of the past 20 years trying to understand and report on the excesses of the City of London that led to the banking crisis and everything that followed. There were two hedge fund managers who made a bundle out of the rise and fall: Chris Hohn and Patrick Degorce. I mention them because the new Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, worked with and for both of them.

The reason this matters is that Hohn and Degorce were so focused, relentless and masters of detail that they make Dominic Cummings seem like a soft dilettante. It is little wonder therefore that Sunak is thriving in what feels to me like the hedge-fund culture that has taken hold at the centre of government since Boris Johnson and Cummings took over.

This does not mean Sunak will be Cummings’s marionette, even with the creation of the new joint Downing Street/Treasury economic policy unit – whose members will be chosen by Cummings and Sunak, with none relying exclusively on Sunak’s patronage.

But it absolutely does mean Downing Street, the Cabinet Office and the Treasury will act more-or-less as a seamless unit, and the centre of government will be more powerful than at any time probably since the Second World War.

More fool any minister who dares to gainsay the troika of Cummings, Gove and Sunak, with Johnson floating zen-like above.

Join Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth, Katy Balls and Rachel Woolf on 11 March as they discuss the Budget just hours after it’s announced. Book tickets here.

With the sackings of Smith, Leadsom and Cox, and the resignation of Javid, Johnson demonstrated more than any modern PM that the reward of dissent is exile to the salt mines of the backbenches.

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Robert Peston
Written by
Robert Peston
Robert Peston is Political Editor of ITV News and host of the weekly political discussion show Peston. His articles originally appeared on his ITV News blog.

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