After claiming that Labour is on the same side as criminal people-trafficking gangs, Rishi Sunak clearly owes a rival party leader an apology. The person he should be saying sorry to is not Keir Starmer but Boris Johnson. When Johnson struck a low blow against Starmer for having failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile while DPP, Sunak swiftly joined the pious outrage club against the then prime minister.
‘I wouldn’t have said it,’ he claimed, at what was a moment of particularly intense political peril and personal crisis for Johnson. Never mind that Johnson had thrown his below-the-belt punch immediately after Starmer had mounted an extraordinarily unpleasant attack on him that alleged he ruined the lives of everyone he came into contact with. Sunak was nevertheless determined to side with the Labour leader.
Could we be seeing the death of Head Boy Rishi and the birth of a Hard-As-Nails Rishi?
Let us take it as read that for the Prime Minister to now deliver an even more outrageous slur against His Majesty’s loyal opposition exposes him to charges of cant and hypocrisy that are difficult to rebut. In politics we live in a fallen world, so harrumphing from a Labour party that recently accused Sunak of not wanting child molesters to be locked up should also be taken with a giant pinch of salt.
The more interesting question is whether Sunak’s tactic of casting Labour as the pro-illegal immigration party might work. Could it also signal the start of a concerted attempt by the Prime Minister’s aides to rebrand him in the public eye? Could we be seeing the death of Head Boy/Perfect Son-in-Law Rishi and the birth of a Hard-As-Nails Rishi more suited to the current political and economic climate?
The last time a party leader attempted to effect such an identity change was in 2015 when Ed Miliband sought to put to bed widespread public fears that he would be pushed around by the likes of Nicola Sturgeon were he to become PM. After being told by Jeremy Paxman in a live TV grilling that ‘people think you are just not tough enough’, Miliband replied: ‘Am I tough enough? Hell yes, I’m tough enough.’ He might as well have declared, ‘the Milky Bars are on me’ for all the good that did him.
By contrast, Sunak appears to have decided to follow the longstanding mantra of Michael Gove: ‘Show, don’t tell.’ His undoubtedly snidey tweet about Labour and illegal immigration drew an immediate outraged response both from left-wing politicians and the more high-minded members of the commentariat.
Latching on to a Daily Mail exposé about dodgy immigration lawyers prepared to fabricate evidence for clients with no case to remain in the UK, Sunak said: ‘This is what we are up against. The Labour Party, a subset of lawyers, criminal gangs – they’re all on the same side, propping up a system of exploitation that profits from people getting to the UK illegally.’
The left was enraged. Respected left-leaning commentator Steve Richards condemned it as ‘desperate, pathetic and inauthentic’. Labour peer and Gordon Brown ally Stewart Wood said: ‘I was one of many people who thought that, whatever your views on the Conservatives, the arrival of Rishi Sunak in No.10 would at least mark the end of childish, disingenuous, divisive and misleading rhetoric…Sad to say I was wrong.’
The anti-Brexiteer former ambassador Alexandra Hall Hall – so good they named her twice – said the PM’s remark was ‘vile, dishonest and disgusting’ and even reported him to Twitter for alleged ‘hateful conduct’. Anna Soubry – remember her? – said it was ‘offensive, dishonest nonsense’. Diane Abbott, for once beaten in the hyperbole stakes, simply said it was ‘a horrible tweet’.
But the row saw all these takes receiving online pushback from ordinary voters. The most commonly voiced sentiment was that while Sunak’s words were harsh, they were also fair given Labour’s repeated attempts to block the Illegal Migration Bill and failure to outline any convincing alternative approach to bolstering border control.
The former Cabinet minister Lord Frost spoke for many when he observed: ‘Perfectly fair comment…Objectively all three groups are working to sustain a system the Conservatives are trying to end.’
Given recent polling showing that Sunak’s migration legislation has the support of a big majority of voters, this is a beneficial spat for the Prime Minister to have. Clearly, he did not reach the highest office in the land at the age of 42, marrying a billionaire’s daughter on the way, without having a certain streak of single-mindedness in his make-up.
Drawing sharp dividing lines with Labour – on trans issues, on cancel culture in the banking sector and on illegal immigration – is already visibly starting to wrongfoot Starmer’s party. Not only does the tactic play on public doubts about Starmer and Labour, but it also cheers up a Tory base who had come to believe their party leadership to be indistinguishable from the rest of the hated establishment ‘blob’.
Like Johnson did before him, Sunak can indeed hope to gain advantage from being seen to outrage all the right people. Is it a cynical ploy? Probably yes, given that he was once quite happy to be the favourite Tory of the Johnson-berating classes. But, then again, given that the object of the exercise is to demonstrate ruthlessness that just underlines the point. Bad Rishi has a way to run yet.
Comments