Britons live, we are constantly told, in unprecedented times. Rishi Sunak has become the first person of Asian heritage to be appointed Prime Minister and the third occupant of No. 10 in as many months. Thanks to Brexit, Covid and the Ukraine war, the economy is in turmoil while the trade unions are more assertive than they have been in decades. Sunak’s party is divided, perhaps fatally so, with many Conservative members hankering for Boris Johnson, a more charismatic figure than Sunak and one they consider more capable of rescuing them from likely electoral oblivion. Surely no incoming prime minister has faced a more daunting set of circumstances?
You’d be forgiven for thinking so. But the history books do offer some reassurance for Britain’s new PM. Let me introduce Stanley Baldwin. Conservatives have turned their back on Baldwin, largely because of his association with the appeasement of Hitler. Tories lionise the legend of Churchill: the man who saved Britain.
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