Sunak’s last speech as Commons Tory leader ‘one of his best ever’

LOOKING back on the events of the last couple of years, I still think Rishi Sunak was wrong to resign as chancellor from Boris Johnson’s government.

But, in a way, he cleared the way for Kemi Badenoch to become the first black woman to lead the Conservative party, and possibly be elected prime minister one day. I was wrong to think Tory party members wouldn’t pick her.

That they chose her over Robert Jenrick is partly because Rishi showed colour is irrelevant at the top of the Tory party. He remains the most brilliant politician in the country, the Sachin Tendulkar to a host of struggling county cricketers. It’s good that he is rich. He doesn’t need anyone to buy him his clothes. He doesn’t need to be corrupt.

For all its posturing, the concept of equality is still work in progress in the Labour party.

But I have hopes of politicians such as Wes Streeting and Liz Kendall.

That Nusrat Ghani was in the chair as ‘madam deputy speaker’ during the budget last Wednesday (30) shows – to me at last – there are lessons that other countries, notably India, can learn from Britain. And Badenoch’s appointment of Dame Priti Patel as shadow foreign secretary reminds me that David Cameron took her to India and appointed her his “diaspora champion”.

Nothing became Rishi so much as the manner of his final speech as Tory leader in the Commons. Basically, he blew the budget out of the water. The new head of the sixth form, Rachel Reeves, looked pale and ashen-faced as the smile drained from her face.

The next day, there was a letter in the Daily Telegraph, which had not exactly been supportive of Rishi for a big part of his premiership, which expressed regret that he was going.

Ray Powell from Shefford in Bedfordshire observed: “In his last hurrah, Rishi Sunak exposed all of Labour’s lies and sleights of hand. He was on incredible form. Could either of the Conservative leadership candidates have matched that performance? I doubt it. Does he have to stand down?”

Another reader, Rob Dorrell from Bath in Somerset, appeared to be of similar mind: “Rishi Sunak’s response to the budget was full of passion and energy. Why didn’t he show that when he was prime minister? If he had, he might still be in office now.”

In the months leading up to the general election, a big part of the media whipped up anti-Rishi hysteria. After 14 years of Conservative governments, the country was understandably ready for change. But electing 402 Labour MPs, giving Sir Keir Starmer an absolute majority of 163, means there is no system of checks and balances so necessary in a democracy. Newly elected Labour MPs will not oppose the budget even if they recognise it will harm their constituents.

Rishi, who destroyed the budget with analytical precision, needs to remain in frontline politics even if he is not joining Badenoch’s shadow cabinet. He spoke of a budget “that contains broken promise after broken promise. And reveals the simple truth that the prime minister and chancellor have not been straight with the British people”.

It was perhaps Rishi’s best speech: “During the election, time and again, we Conservatives warned that Labour would tax, borrow and spend far beyond what they were telling the country. And time and again, they denied they had any such plans.

“But today, the truth has come out. Proof that they planned to do this all along. Because today’s budget sees the fiscal rules fiddled. Borrowing increased by billions of pounds. Inflation-busting handouts for the trade unions. Britain’s poorest pensioners squeezed. Welfare spending out of control. And a spree of tax rises they promised the working people of this country they would not do.”

He emphasised that national insurance, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, energy taxes, businesses rates, first time buyer stamp duty and pensions tax had all gone up.

“They have fiddled the figures,” he charged, adding, “They don’t like it, but this is the truth.

“And it is the working people of this country who will pay the price.”

He dismissed the notion the chancellor had no choice because she had unexpectedly discovered a £22 billion “black hole”. “But today the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) has in fact declined to back up her claims,” he said.

“A fictional £22bn black hole. It actually appears nowhere.”

He said “the chancellor’s claims about her economic inheritance are nonsense. Labour inherited an economy with inflation back at its two per cent target, mortgage rates being cut and unemployment low. When we left office, the United Kingdom was the fastest-growing advanced economy in the world.

“And when it comes to the public finances, not once has the chancellor acknowledged that we took the right decision to spend half a trillion pounds to protect the British people from the impact of Covid and (Russian president Vladimir) Putin’s war. “And let me remind you – not only did the party opposite support all those interventions – they wanted us to go even further. When I had to take tough choices to fix the public finances afterwards, the prime minister and chancellor opportunistically opposed me every step of the way. So, I will take no lectures from those two about difficult decisions.”

He turned to the substance of her choices: “During the election, the chancellor repeatedly promised her plans were fully funded.

“Only a few weeks ago the prime minister said the bud[1]get would ‘balance the books’. But this budget does no such thing and reveals that they have not been straight with the British people. Because today, the chancellor has launched an enormous borrowing spree, saddling our children and grandchildren with billions upon billions of pounds more debt, pushing up interest rates and leaving our economy more exposed to future shocks.”

He mentioned the settlement with the train drivers which will see them earning £100,000 with overtime – and push up fares for ordinary “working people”.

Indeed, “one of the first things the chancellor did was to hand out inflationbusting pay rises to the unions without getting any productivity enhancing reforms in return”.

He called the budget “the classic Labour agenda: higher taxes, higher borrowing; no plan for growth. And working people will pay the price”. Rishi was scornful: “This is what happens when the Labour party is led by people who have no experience of business and enterprise.”

He reminded the country that during the election campaign, “the prime minister specifically said there would be ‘no tax surprises’ under Labour. The chancellor went even further, saying she wanted to bring taxes down. Each time they made these promises, we warned they were not telling the truth.

“And today, the chancellor and prime minister have done what they were always planning to do, but chose to keep hidden from the British people.”

In concluding, he said: “For the final time from this dispatch box, let me deliver some basic truths.

“Today’s budget reveals above all that those in the Labour party did not tell the truth. They said they would not fiddle the figures; they have. They said they would not increase borrowing; they have. They said they would not raise taxes on working people; they have. There has been broken promise after broken promise, and it is the working people of this country who will pay the price.”

Rishi’s legacy is the country will now learn the hard way that during the election campaign he told the truth, but Starmer and Reeves didn’t. That is very damaging for the Labour government.