FOR those watching closely, the two most powerful politicians in the United Kingdom, who live next door to one another, may soon have to have a reckoning.
The big political question this year is: did Rishi betray Boris, or did he say what was on everyone’s mind, but they were too scared to put their head above the parapet?
For the past few months, the Conservative party has been in free-fall since the revelations that the prime minister was involved in a series of potential breaches of lockdown rules. So much so, the Metropolitan Police are investigating a sitting prime minister, and it could cost Johnson his premiership if he is found to have misled parliament.
Not only that, the prime minister also tried to divert attention by making a fake slur against the Labour leader, for which he will not apologise. In the middle of this series of unfortunate political errors, his neighbour at Number 11 was asked whether the prime minister should apologise and withdraw his allegation that Keir Starmer was responsible for not prosecuting the serial sex offender, Jimmy Savile. “Dishy” Rishi, as he is known responded, “Being honest, I wouldn’t have said it and I’m glad the PM clarified what he meant.”
It has divided the party, and the man who is so careful, may have made an error of judgment, no matter how true his answer.
Valentine’s Day will forever have an added piquancy for the current occupant of Number 11 Downing Street. It was the day when his very good friend, and then boss, Sajid Javid, resigned after the prime minister ordered him to fire his aides. Johnson immediately promoted Sunak from Treasury chief secretary to chancellor. The MP for Richmond in north Yorkshire had just four weeks to deliver his first budget, something his predecessor never got to do. Not only that, Sunak had to do so in the middle of a global pandemic, and he won huge plaudits on his side of the aisle, business and the NHS.
“The biggest rabbit he pulled out of the hat, which was the furlough scheme, is undoubtedly one of the things I would say has been pivotal in retaining some economic stability and personal security for a lot of people in the country,” says one Westminster insider, who did not wish to be named.
“To do that as a relatively new chancellor – at that point he wasn’t even 40 years old – it was a huge responsibility on relatively young, let’s be clear, pretty inexperienced, shoulders.”
Sunak cuts a dashing figure; some have described him as the Conservative equivalent of Labour’s Tony Blair when he took over his party in 1994. Indeed, the Daily Mail, the bastion of white, middle England, heralded him “PM in waiting”. Speak to many and, at this moment, the most used word to describe Sunak is “impressive”.
Sunak has achieved more in his 40 years than many of us will in a lifetime. Head boy at the independent boarding school, Winchester College; Oxford university beckoned; as did being a Fulbright Scholar at the prestigious Stanford University. Sunak worked at Goldman Sachs and hedge funds The Children’s Investment Fund and Theleme.
And he obviously takes calculated risks. Consider for a moment, a south Asian putting himself up for an ultra-safe Conservative seat where three per cent are black or Asian.
As a former leader of the Tories, Lord Hague, told the GG2 Power List previously, “When he was getting to know the constituency, a few weeks after he was selected, I met up with him for a coffee one morning. I said, ‘What are you going to do next?’ He said, ‘I’m going to Wensleydale to milk cows.’ I said, ‘What? I was a member for 26 years here, OK, so I did visit the farms a lot and asked the farmers about their businesses, but you don’t really have to go milking the cows.’ He said, ‘No, I’m determined to understand what it’s like and how the business works, what the future is for farming, I’m going to put my wellies on and this morning, I’m going milking cows.’
“That shows you what sort of person he is. It’s very impressive,” the constituency’s previous MP has said.
Sunak, sources tell us, is a “details man”. He reads briefing notes and then asks for more information, and he never attends any meeting unprepared, unlike his boss who often blusters his way through questioning by politicians, journalists and the public.
“He’s not only super bright, but as you’d expect in somebody of his Indian origins, he’s also super hard working,” says one parliamentarian. In a job like his, you’ve got to be all over the detail, and that’s not something Boris has much appetite for or is renowned for doing. He is the perfect counter foil for Boris, creating the space for Rishi to shine.”
“The other thing is that he benefited from being a Brexiteer, so he was not viewed with suspicion by the likes of Dominic Cummings [former senior special adviser to the prime minister]. He was seen as one of us, and therefore, that relationship was a lot more comfortable from the Downing Street end of it.”
Hard work and diligence are Sunak’s trademark. In January 2018, three years after entering parliament, the then prime minister, Theresa May, plucked him from the backbenches, appointing him junior minister at the ministry for communities and local government. Others quickly saw his talent and in July 2019, Sunak became chief secretary to the Treasury, with a seat at the Cabinet table.
He wrote in his local newspaper at the time, “After the call from Number 10 and what seemed like a very long walk up Downing Street, past the assembled ranks of the media, I found myself in the famous Cabinet room with Boris Johnson who asked me to be chief secretary to the Treasury. I said I was honoured to accept and to serve the country at this defining moment in the nation’s history.”
Under Chancellor Sunak, the government has ploughed in £280 billion in fiscal aid packages to stimulate the economy. This includes the furlough scheme supporting 10 million people, as well as three million self-employed workers with grants. But in January he told the Commons, “Even with the significant economic support we’ve provided, over 800,000 people have lost their job since February. And while the new national restrictions are necessary to control the spread of the virus, they will have a further significant economic impact.”
Those in business, such as Dawood Pervez, managing director of Bestway, the UK’s second largest wholesaler servicing 125,000 independent retailers, tells the Power List that Sunak has made a promising start.
“I think it’s been the most impossible task to be the chancellor in this pandemic,” he says. “Time will tell how successful he has been by either giving enough away or giving too much away. It’ll all be relative to what’s happened in other markets as well, because that will impact the amount of quantitative easing that’s been done or money printed, and that will impact the currency. It sometimes feels we’re extremely generous. And then, of course, when we think of the plight of the wholesalers, it feels like we’ve not been generous enough.”
Westminster insiders say the crucial factor for Sunak is that he had served his time. His last role as chief secretary, was “one of the most intellectually demanding jobs in government because it requires an in-depth understanding of every government department.”
It requires a deep understanding of the country, its politics and all of the issues.
“He has really understood his fields and therefore can bring a lot to parliament rather than a loud trumpet without anything behind that,” says Sam Patel, executive director of Day Lewis, which runs 300 independent pharmacies in the UK. “He’s thoughtful, he communicates with compassion and care. He strikes me as somebody that is committed to the job, and someone who wants to do it for the right reasons.”
Sunak gets politics. He was one of the first to throw his support behind Johnson when he could so easily have backed Javid or Michael Gove for leader in 2019, says one Westminster source. He is being talked of as a future leader, and Britain’s first south Asian prime minister. Sunak is too clever to be drawn into speculation about whether he wants the top job, and insiders have made it clear that he is focused on his current job, and he is 100 per cent behind the current incumbent of Number 10.
But there are some who still do not think he is making enough of his back story to appeal to wider party more widely.
“He’s got all the ingredients, he’s definitely got everything that it takes,” says one parliamentarian. “What he now needs is a broadening of his experience. He’s developed the skill sets which I think in the 21st century are crucial if you want to be head of government. But in Rishi’s case, he’s got to be seen as more than a technocratic politician. He’s got to be able to win over hearts and minds.”
Another, who did not wish to be identified, says that the delayed G7 summit of the world’s top-seven richest nations would be a defining moment for Sunak.
“Rishi needs to be able to translate or show that he can translate his skills on a global stage in terms of wider politics. The G7 meeting in Cornwall in June this year, could provide him with quite a valuable platform. Convening the finance ministers of the G7 plus the three that are being invited, Australia, South Korea and India, will enhance his gravitas on the world stage. There are politicians you respect and there are politicians that people like. I think the business of being prime minister requires you to be respected and liked at the same time.”
What will endear Sunak to grassroots Tories is his “back story”. It is one of a middle-class aspirational family done great. Sunak’s father and mother were medics and ran a local pharmacy. Then, of course, his going up to Oxford, onto Goldman Sachs, Stanford, and eventually, parliament will mark him out to be the aspirational story not only every Asian dreams about, but Conservatives too. Even so, they do feel that Sunak has the grassroots support and that of his fellow MPs. The question remains whether the Tories are ready for a prime minister or leader of colour.
“Rishi’s first hurdle is Boris going and second of all, the Conservative party saying, right, we’re ready for somebody of colour to lead us,” says a Westminster source. “Rishi’s transcended that. There is no doubt in my mind that in the right circumstances, Tory MPs would vote in sufficient numbers to put him on the ballot paper.
“I also think there’s no doubt that there would be enough Tory members to vote for him. I think the issue, though, is the circumstances in which that might happen. He’s got this dilemma of how Boris leaves and whether that drags Rishi down at the same time. As always, the level of proximity between Number 10 and Number 11 has both positive and negative aspects.”
What Sunak does hold is an ace card, and one he has never needed to use. His father-in-law is the Indian billionaire NR Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys. Fortune magazine named Murthy among the 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time. Sources suggest that Sunak does not feel he needs to trade on his father-in-law’s name, preferring to be a self-made political leader.
“I think he’s been the only government minister who seems to be liked by the population,” remarks Bharat Shah, co-founder and co-chair of Sigma Pharmaceuticals. “Honestly, we’ve got 500 people working in our company, and I’ve, as yet, not met anybody who has a negative word about the chancellor.
“I attended one of the GG2 [diversity] functions, where David Cameron was the chief guest. He actually mentioned that he’s looking forward to a day when he would have a south Asian prime minister, and I don’t think it’s too far off, and that’d be absolutely brilliant.”
Friends have told the Power List that he is a vocal and vociferous supporter of England, and he would pass the infamous “Tebbit Cricket Test”. His patriotism to his country, his loyalty to his party and support for his prime minister shine through every time Sunak is on the radio or television. In an interview for Nick Robinson, host of the Political Thinking podcast, Sunak was suitably modest when the BBC Radio 4 Today presenter revealed he was number seven on the Power List in 2019.
“This cabinet is interesting,” he deflected when asked about what it meant to him. “It was the most diverse cabinet in history when it was announced, that’s something for everyone to be proud of and to celebrate. I wonder what that list looked like 10, 20, 30 years ago.”
In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Malvoilio tells Olivia “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” You just sense that Sunak has one hand and two feet in all three camps. Fate now has to choose what it has in store for this chancellor. Will it be the Ides of March or the triumph of Bassanio winning his bride?
