Tag: United Kingdom

  • ‘Suella Braverman’s speech shows she is clueless about the reality of LGBTQ+ refugees’

    It starts with a school bully. Or a match on an underground dating app who seems nice, until when you meet, he robs you and beats you and blackmails you for being gay. Or maybe it’s a rumour in your village that ends with someone setting your house on fire.

    However badly you’re treated, you can’t go to the authorities for help, because the fact is, same sex relationships are illegal. If you’re found in one, you could be imprisoned for 14 years or even killed.

    That’s the reality for LGBTQ+ people in many countries in the world. No one wants to leave their home country, but sometimes something happens that means you have no choice.

    This week, Suella Braverman positioned herself as the voice of pragmatic realism on refugee law. But for the Home Secretary to say that “being gay isn’t reason enough for asylum” shows how far removed she is from the reality of being an LGBTQ+ refugee.

    The home secretary argued that case law has led to “an interpretive shift away from ‘persecution’, in favour of something more akin to a definition of ‘discrimination’”. This in turn, she argued, lowered the threshold of those who qualified for asylum, and insisted ‘simply being gay’ should not qualify someone for asylum.

    As offensive as this is to those who have experienced homophobia in any country, Braverman’s argument is misleading on three counts.

    Firstly, LGBT+ refugees made up just 2 per cent of U.K. asylum seekers in 2022, according to the government’s own statistics. Although the Home Office undoubtedly has problems, the evidence suggests that being overwhelmed with the world’s LGBT + refugees isn’t one of them.

    Secondly, LGBT+ asylum seekers already have to prove that they are being specifically targeted in their home country, during a Home Office interview process where the bar is notoriously high. In many cases, this also involves the humiliating experience of being asked intimate questions and even to produce sexually explicit photos to “prove” their sexuality.

    Thirdly, and perhaps most disturbingly, Braverman’s words carry the implication that LGBTQ+ people can just “get by” in countries where their very existence is sometimes punishable by death. This betrays a shocking level of ignorance for someone in charge of refugee policy. The fact is, most LGBTQ+ refugees have tried to “get by” in their home countries, but that hasn’t stopped them being labelled “effeminate” and being shunned by family and friends. 

    And the abuse escalates – those who flee do so because they have been physically assaulted, burned, blackmailed or threatened with prison or death. Furthermore, those who do make it to the UK can expect to wait for months or even years in the asylum system, often in accommodation where they are at risk of homophobic attacks.

    “Where individuals are being persecuted, it is right that we offer sanctuary”, Braverman claimed at the start of her speech. She should live up to her word, and give LGBTQ+ refugees the welcome they deserve.

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  • Formal warning for Court of Appeal judge who was ‘rude and hostile’ towards barrister

    ‘Judicial bullying’

    A senior judge has been issued with a formal warning after he was found to have behaved in a “rude and hostile manner” towards a barrister during a hearing.

    The Court of Appeal’s Lord Justice Clive Lewis “intervened excessively” in the unnamed barrister’s submissions throughout the hearing, in a manner which became “increasingly harsh and rude” and to the extent that it constituted “judicial bullying”.

    The experienced judge had accepted he had allowed his frustrations at the hearing to show and reflected that he should have handled matters differently, according to a finding published by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO). He apologised at the hearing.

    A spokesperson for the JCIO said the Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor agreed to issue the judge with a formal warning, after “they took into consideration the mitigation offered… including his apology and commitment to learn from the experience and adjust his behaviour in future”.

    No further details about the incident were provided.

    Lord Justice Lewis called to the bar in 1987 and began practice in 1992 with a focus judicial review and public law matters. He was appointed to the High Court, Queen’s Bench Division (now King’s Bench Division) in 2013 and was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in October 2020.

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  • Jeremy Hunt: ‘Very difficult’ to see tax cuts this year

    Jeremy Hunt has insisted that while he “would love to see tax cuts for working people”, it is “very difficult” to see tax cuts coming this year. 

    It comes after Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, told Sky News on Sunday that he would like to see the tax burden reduced before the next election.

    Gove said he wanted the cuts fall on work to “incentivise people to work harder”, adding: “We should make sure that [workers] are better rewarded for the enterprise, effort and endeavour they put in”.

    Asked if we could see a headline tax cut before the next election, the chancellor said this morning: “It’s very difficult to see having that kind of tax cut this year.”

    He told Sky News: “If we gave big tax cuts, that would put more money in people’s pockets and that would be inflationary. And right now, we are in a big battle — which is succeeding — to bring down inflation.

    “The fastest way that we can help working families — the people Michael Gove was talking about — if we halve inflation, that’s not a 1p in the pound tax cut, that’s a 5p in the pound boost to their income.”

    Jeremy Hunt’s speech is the main event on the conference stage today, and he is expected to announce that benefits claimants who fail to look for work will receive harsher sanctions.

    The debate on tax is one of the big sticking points of Conservative Party conference which is underway in Manchester. 

    And Hunt’s comments this morning come as Liz Truss prepares to remake her case for the direction she believes the Conservative Party should take — a year after her administration began to collapse around her.

    The UK’s shortest ever serving prime minister will speak at a fringe event at conference today.

    With her “pro-growth” rallying kicking off at 12.30 pm, and set to be attended by former cabinet ministers Jacob Rees Mogg and Priti Patel, Truss will call on ministers to make the Ponservative party the “party of business again” by cutting corporation taxes, adding: “Let’s stop taxing and banning things, and start producing and building things.” 

    A year ago, Conservative party conference was a forum for senior Conservatives to undermine her authority — which came to a head when she and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced they would be scrapping the headline proposal of the pair’s mini-budget: the abolition of the 45p income tax rate. 

    Less than a month later, she had resigned following a mutiny in her party — which preceded Rishi Sunak’s elevation as leader.

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  • Eversheds appoints ‘global head of AI’

    Introduces AI skills course too

    Eversheds Sutherland has appointed its first global head of artificial intelligence (AI) as the profession continues to embrace technological change.

    United Arab Emirates partner Nasser Ali Khasawneh will oversee the firm’s AI strategy, ensuring consistency between its AI client advisory practice and its own use of AI.

    His new role will also see him head-up the firm’s newly formed global AI leadership team, made up of lawyers from across the firm’s offices in the UK, Ireland and the US as well as its consultancy service Konexo.

    Khasawneh has represented some of the world’s largest information technology, media and consumer companies, advising them on various commercial, licensing, cloud computing and IP rights, according to his firm profile. He also spent four years as a lawyer at Microsoft.

    Separately, Eversheds has also announced the launch of a new AI skills programme for all lawyers and business staff. The first stage of this program will be delivered through the new ‘Generative AI Fundamentals for Law Firms’ training developed by e-learning outfit SkillBurst.

    This is in addition to the creation of a global AI task force, featuring a team of lawyers and business professionals from across the firm who will be reviewing the potential development and use of AI products.

    The 2024 Legal Cheek Firms Most List

    Commenting on his new role, Khasawneh said:

    “I am honored to take on this very exciting new role as Global Head of AI. AI is without a doubt the most significant development in the technology space for a generation. This technology doesn’t belong to one geography, sector or practice group — my appointment will ensure that the firm takes a global approach in helping our clients consider the rapidly developing potential offered by generative AI.”

    His appointment follows the news that Macfarlanes had adopted ‘Harvey‘, an AI bot that uses ChatGPT technology to “automate and enhance” various aspects of legal work. The bot is also being used by lawyers at Allen & Overy.

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  • Conservatives will fight general election as ‘underdogs’, party chairman says

    The Conservatives will fight the election as the “underdogs”, the party’s chairman has said.

    Speaking to the Conservative conference floor yesterday, Greg Hands, who was appointed party chairman in Febuary, said: “This is likely to be a general election where the Conservatives enter as the underdogs.

    “I know in recent years you will have had difficult conversations with voters, I certainly have.

    “But I would say just three things about those conversations. First, every single conversation I’ve had on the doorstep has been improved by the mention of Rishi Sunak and the job that he does as our Prime Minister.

    “Second, there is no enthusiasm for Sir Keir Starmer and even less trust in him. And third, that wherever Labour runs something in the country, they run it badly.”

    The Conservative Party chairman went on to mock the Labour Leader by holding a pair of “Sir Keir Starmer flip flops”.

    He accused Sir Keir of being a “man who will literally say anything that suits him at that time”, adding: “Who is the real Sir Keir Starmer? The friend and supporter of Jeremy Corbyn? The puppet of Tony Blair? Or the mouthpiece of Just Stop Oil?”

    He then brandished a pair of black and red flip flops with the Labour Leader’s face printed on them to muted applause.

    He said; “Ladies and Gentlemen, can I let you into a secret – if anyone likes the association of Sir Keir with flip flops, I have these: available for just £16.99 here at the Conservative Party shop and also online at Conservatives.com, your own pair of Sir Keir Starmer flip flops and I’d warmly recommend them to you.”

    Showing them off to party members, Hands told the Exchange Hall at Manchester Central Convention Complex: “I always thought that the best leaders wake up each morning, and ask themselves, ‘What am I going to do today?’.

    “Sir Keir wakes up and asks, ‘What am I going to believe today?’

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  • SQE scholarship up for grabs in future lawyer essay comp

    Win half-price SQE1 prep course courtesy of BARBRI

    BARBRI is calling on aspiring lawyers to sketch out their vision of the ’21st century solicitor’ as part of the legal education giant’s latest essay writing competition.

    The winner of the competition will receive a 50% discount on their BARBRI SQE1 Prep fees for their chosen course preparing for January or July 2024 SQE1 exams.

    To be in with a chance of bagging the prize, solicitor hopefuls must submit an essay of no more than 1,000 words (not including any references) on the subject, ‘What is the role of a solicitor in the 21st century?’

    Students are also required to attend ‘Making QWE work for you — with BARBRI’, a virtual event taking place on Wednesday 25 October. You can secure your place here.

    APPLY NOW: ‘Making QWE work for you — with BARBRI’ on 25 October

    Please note that to be eligible, you must be in your final year of university or a graduate and ready to take the SQE, joining only the applicable courses listed on this page.

    Emily Allen, senior tutor at BARBRI and a qualified barrister, commented:

    “We’re thrilled to partner with Legal Cheek and run another essay competition. The world is changing rapidly, and as new challenges and opportunities arise, the legal profession should be adapting accordingly. We’re excited to hear what the next generation of solicitors think their role will and should be as this century unfolds.”

    You can find out more about the essay competition here and its relevant T&Cs here. The deadline for submissions is 31 October 2023.

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  • Meet Rishi 2.0: How the PM intends to reposition as the ‘change’ candidate in 2024

    In a revealing exchange with Laura Kuenssberg during his pre-conference Sunday morning interview, the prime minister was asked what, if anything, he admired in Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. 

    Sunak refused to answer: “Great”, he began, “I’m not interested in talking about personalities, people can make up their own minds”. 

    He continued: “I’m interested in setting out my vision for the country, and people can make their own judgement. But what I would say is you’ve got to take a stand on things.

    “I don’t expect everyone to agree with me on everything, but people will have a clearer idea of what I believe what I stand for, and the direction in which I want to lead the country”.

    “[Politics] is not all rough and tumble”, Kuenssberg insisted as she framed her question. But this was the prime minister insisting it is. 

    So, presented with the opportunity to tone down the rhetoric, without a moment’s pause Sunak instead dialled it up, launching into a thinly-veiled, feisty attack on the Labour leader: “I don’t think actually saying nothing, hiding is the right type of leadership. I think that’s an abdication of leadership, quite frankly”.

    He added: “I’m interested in sending out a clear set of policies, a clear direction of travel based on my values, which I think are the values shared by the British people. And that’s how we’re going to do things now. We’re going to do things differently.

    “We’re going to change how we do politics, and that’s how we’re going to change our country”.

    Ostensibly, Sunak’s answer here is a further indication that as we travel the road to a general election in 2024, the public discourse is getting coarser. But the response is also a manifestation of his new approach to politics and government, as he debuts a more aggressive political style this conference season. 

    This hardened discursive edge to Sunak’s “rebrand” comes after the prime minister watered down his government’s targets on net zero in a speech that openly attacked the way politics has been conducted in recent years. “Too often, motivated by short term thinking, politicians have taken the easy way out”, the PM said in his net zero speech last month: “Telling people the bits they want to hear, and not necessarily always the bits they need to hear”.

    This was, if you took the PM at his word, him injecting long-overdue realism into the climate debate. In total, the PM’s speech on net zero — which announced that the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will be moved back five years to 2035 and that the transition to heat pumps has been delayed — mentioned the word “change” (in a political/governance context) 20 times. 

    But “change” is not just forthcoming on net zero. Elsewhere, Sunak has insisted that “I’m slamming the brakes on the war on motorists” as he attacked “hare-brained schemes” like Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and 20mph zones introduced by councils.

    Announcing the new approach to the Sun, Sunak said: “Now that I’ve had this job for almost a year, you know, lots of difficult things to get to grips with the beginning — I spent the time to get under the bonnet.

    “Now I am in a position where I want to set out the changes that I want to make take this country a different.”

    Then there’s the matter of HS2. Scrapping the northern leg, or phase two route, to Manchester would fit neatly into Sunak’s new pitch on taking “difficult decisions”, which other politicians might view as electorally propitious to push back.

    You can see the theory on paper here — Sunak wants to restyle himself as a “change politician”, seizing on voters’ discontent with the status quo and attempting to tie Labour leader Keir Starmer to the short-term, path of least resistance politics which has delivered it. 

    However, the immediate political attraction of being a “change” politician aside — Sunak’s pitch here is, of course, stunningly audacious. For after 13 years of Conservative government, the prime minister is attempting another reinvention which rests on, for its rhetorical force, rubbishing the initiatives of his predecessors. 

    Sunak will know that, in recent years, the Conservatives have repeatedly eyed electoral success in reinvention. Theresa May’s emphasis on “burning injustices” in her first speech as prime minister was viewed as signally a political change of direction from the Cameron years. Boris Johnson spent the whole of the 2019 leadership contest explaining how he would succeed on Brexit where Theresa May had failed. Then Liz Truss appeared out of the blue in 2022 with a political vision defined in opposition to decades of Conservative-shaped economic orthodoxy.

    But what seems so striking about Sunak’s reinvention is that he appears to be repudiating his own approach to governance which he has focussed on since October last year and, certainly, since January. 

    Because, long before Rishi 2.0, Rishi 1.0 in the New Year worked to define his time in Downing Street on the clearest possible terms. The “five pledges” penned in January already gave the government an overarching collection of North Stars to frame its operation: it deliberately denied the siren calls for hyper-political bluster — only delivery, Sunak insisted, would re-earn the “trust” of the British people.

    That a new operation has now been inaugurated is probably proof that No 10 does not see the pledges, curated to project Sunakian stability and competence, cutting through. The pragmatic, delivery-orientated mode of governance that the pledges spoke to has, therefore, been replaced by a hyper-political, headline-grabbing style. 

    It means, where Sunak once saw virtue in steadying the ship, now he works deliberately to rock the boat. “Rishi 2.0” is about the prime minister throwing caution to the wind with big mooted policies on watering down net zero policies, further curtailing the spread of HS2, ending the “war on motorists” and more surely to be announced. 

    But, before you arrive at the broader limitations of the approach — the foremost of which will be the fuelling of party divisions on levelling up and climate policy — headline-grabbing politics only really succeeds if it is underpinned, in the end, by real advances.

    Ultimately, Sunak’s tough talk could simply be undercut by the fact that the Conservatives have been in office for thirteen years. “That’s how we’re going to do things now”, Sunak told the BBC on Sunday. The obvious question is: why the sudden change of heart? The PM will need to explain his strategical switch-up in a way that cannot merely be dismissed as hollow, opinion poll sensitive electioneering. 

    Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Twitter here.

    Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our daily newsletter here.



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  • Henry Smith: ‘The ocean has never faced so many threats. Here’s what the UK must do’

    Somewhere on the seabed off the coast of Land’s End lies a boulder with my name spray-painted on it in chalk. While submarine graffiti is not my regular hobby, this particular boulder is one of dozens that were dropped there to form a physical barrier against bottom trawlers ploughing up the seafloor in one of our Marine Protected Areas.

    Sadly this approach cannot be replicated everywhere, nor should it have to be. The high seas, the vast expanses of the ocean beyond our territorial waters, have long been the Wild West for industrial fishing. Just 3% of these areas are currently protected and lawlessness has prevailed at the expense of our fragile marine ecosystems.

    I firmly believe that our ocean has never faced as many threats – the relentless squeeze of industrial fishing and the ominous spectre of deep-sea mining to name just two. A recent report showed that the time industrial vessels spent fishing on the high seas rose to over 8.5 million hours last year – 8.5% higher than in 2018. What is worse, the increase was even higher in areas that scientists have identified as most vulnerable, underlining the urgency of the crisis facing our ocean. This unchecked exploitation is damaging fish populations and wreaking havoc on the delicate balance of life in our oceans.

    That is why the UK signing the Global Ocean Treaty at the United Nations last month was such a momentous event. It marks a critical milestone on the path towards creating protected areas in at least 30% of our oceans by 2030 – a global ‘30×30’ target that the UK was instrumental in getting over the line.

    But it was also about safeguarding the UK’s environmental credentials. On the same day that foreign minister Lord Ahmad put pen to paper on the Treaty, the prime minister gave a speech altering policies on the pace of that vital journey to get us to Net Zero. There is no doubt it has impacted the UK’s environmental policy stance.

    It is therefore incumbent upon us to demonstrate our dedication to environmental stewardship, and our endorsement of the Treaty is a step in that direction – not only to protect the denizens of the deep and their habitats, but also to protect the ocean’s ability to absorb and store carbon emissions. I will be sponsoring a parliamentary event on 23rd October along with Great Blue Ocean and the High Seas Alliance to celebrate the progress we have made, but also to underline that time is running out.

    The UK played a leading role in the negotiations for a Global Ocean Treaty and now we must be among the first to ratify it. A further 80 countries joined us in signing the Treaty last month, demonstrating the momentum and consensus behind it. If we are to have any hope of achieving the 30×30 target, the Treaty must be ratified by 60 countries in the next two years. The UK must lead the way.

    At the same time, we must capitalise on the new opportunities the Treaty offers us by putting forward proposals for new ocean sanctuaries. This will ensure we can hit the ground running when the Treaty comes into force in 2025.

    We are particularly well placed to work with fellow signatories of the Hamilton Declaration, to champion an ocean sanctuary in the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda. This remarkably clear patch of the Atlantic is named after the floating clumps of Sargassum seaweed that are home to an amazing array of species, while also sequestering carbon and pumping out oxygen.

    The UK has a golden opportunity to show leadership on the global stage in addressing this challenge. By ratifying the Treaty as soon as possible and putting forward proposals for some of the first marine sanctuaries, we can turn this challenge into a diplomatic success story.

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  • Jon Cruddas: ‘Every leader before Keir Starmer has accepted Labour is a broad church. Why can’t he?’

    Labour faces two huge strategic challenges: first how to win power, and second how to use it to change our country for the better. The polls – for now at least – suggest it will clear the first hurdle, but what of the second? 

    The country is in a mess. We desperately need a bold and reforming Labour-led government to rebuild our economy and crumbling public services, restore trust in our democracy whilst tackling the climate crisis head-on. But our party’s capacity to effectively, democratically challenge the existing social and economic order depends on the degree to which it embraces pluralism. 

    Pluralism is the recognition that no single issue, internal faction or political  party can usher in a Good Society alone. The Labour Party, of course, will need to play a central role if we are to transform our country. But why exclude those from other progressive traditions who can deepen and enrich such a project, just as Keynes and Beveridge did for Labour in 1945? 

    Yet the Labour leadership appears to have rejected this approach in pursuit of internal factional dominance of the party. The leadership has subcontracted control of the party to Labour First, the most orthodox, hardline, Labour faction, to determine candidates and decide who and who is not a member. Such a monoculture is unprecedented in Labour history. This approach might work in opposition, but will come with a significant downside in government; an inability to create alliances and tap into wider sources of energy to bolster the when in power.

    The leadership needs to change track. Modern politics demands a diversity of views and solutions that one small section of one party simply can’t deliver. If we go into office with this narrow governing mentality the fear is we simply won’t have the bandwidth to cope with the complexity of issues thrown at us.

    Last week, staff at cross-party campaigns group Compass, an organisation of which I am a board member, handed in a petition to Labour HQ to warn the party against taking its current exclusionary approach into government. 12,000 people signed the petition calling for the party to embrace a pluralist culture for the sake of our country and highlighting that a better future will only be negotiated by all of us, not imposed from the top-down. Compass, which turns 20 this year, has been defending this tradition since its inception. 

    Respect, tolerance and pluralism represent our party’s core values. This reality was understood by Tony Blair.  Every leader before Keir Starmer has accepted a broad cohabitation of traditions – it’s what we call Labour’s ‘broad church’. The suppression of certain traditions such as those advanced by Compass, simply narrows the congregation so that it becomes unwelcoming or actively hostile to any who don’t fit the dominant ideological mould.

    Of course, factions have always existed and competed for power within the Labour, and they will no doubt continue to – such is the nature of politics. But Labour has always maintained a basic understanding that other views are relevant, are historically rooted  and  provide necessary balance.

    The threatened expulsion of Neal Lawson is just one recent example of this leadership’s excesses. But this egregious overreach extends far beyond one case – many others have now been thrown out of the party, banned from standing as candidates or driven out by a culture of intolerance. Membership of our party has dropped dramatically over the last few years.  

    Labour’s proud history of pluralism is in danger of being threatened just when our party and the country needs it most.

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  • Week-in-Review: Rishi Sunak’s ‘reinvention’ shows the limits of his power

    Why do leaders and parties reinvent themselves? Here’s one obvious answer to that question: because they have to. 

    Rishi Sunak’s updated political approach, expounded this week before his party faithful, might simply be explained in terms of the Conservatives’ enduring electoral travails. With his party languishing behind the Labour in the polls, a refreshed approach is probably the reflex response. The voters aren’t happy, No 10 notes, so Sunak must signal a new departure: electoral necessity thus proves the mother of political invention. 

    But, step back from Sunak’s political predicament, and the factors that inform a political change in direction are typically rather more complex. Indeed, when commentators consider the Conservative party’s recent capacity for reinvention and renewal, political change is viewed in far broader, probably less calculated, terms.

    As Conservative leader in the 2005-2010 period, David Cameron first won the argument against the status quo within his own party (personified by David Davis in the 2005 leadership election), before parading as the “change” candidate in the general. In 2016, Theresa May’s emphasis on “seven burning injustices” on the steps of No 10 was interpreted as her abjuring, rhetorically at least, on the platform of her predecessor. In 2019, Boris Johnson first dispatched Jeremy Hunt (termed Theresa-In-Trousers), before unveiling a restyled, Brexit-soaked Conservative party — with one-nationeers largely expunged — to the electorate that same year. Liz Truss, of course, repudiated decades of “economic orthodoxy” in her pitch as Conservative leader. And Rishi Sunak was swept into No 10 by his colleagues in October last year because he was roundly viewed as the antidote to Trussonomics.  

    In this way, the cycle of Conservative invention and reinvention has followed a familiar pattern since 2010: with a new political approach preceded at every stage by the coronation of a new leader. Consequently, it has become standard practice for that leader to then define themself in opposition to their ancien régime(s). 

    It is significant, therefore, that Sunak hailed a radical new departure on Wednesday, while midway through his period as prime minister (if 2024 does, in fact, prove to be his political terminus). 

    Thus the transition from Rishi 1.0, that pledge-propounding champion of stability, to Rishi 2.0, our PM’s latest status quo-smashing variant, is not informed by some totemic new “mandate” — that rhetorical crutch often leaned on by Sunak’s forebears. As UnHerd political editor Tom McTague explained acidly this week: “The man from Goldman Sachs looked at the books and made a decision — and we are all supposed to accept that this is how we are governed”.

    Rather, this week’s Sunakian renaissance is founded on the prime minister’s self-declared analytical clarity. The centre of Sunak’s audacious new argument is that he has, in his first year as prime minister, located a “30-year political status quo” ripe for renewal: “Politics doesn’t work the way it should”, he explained on Wednesday, “We’ve had thirty years of a political system that incentivises the easy decision, not the right one. 

    “Thirty years of vested interests standing in the way of change. Thirty years of rhetorical ambition which achieves little more than a short-term headline”.

    Then came the headline pitch: “I will lead in a different way. Because that is the only way to create the sort of change in our politics and in our country that we all desperately want to see”. Britain is broken, Sunak now insists — and only he, and he alone, can fix it. 

    This is a perfectly fine message on paper — perhaps, given the electoral stakes, it is the only message — but the strategy can only work if it is underpinned by genuinely transformative policy. So what is Sunak offering?

    Having watered down key net zero targets last month, HS2 was the latest policy area to feel the force of the prime minister’s “long-termism” this week. He labelled the project the “ultimate example of the old consensus” as he detailed how the funding would be redirected to a new “Network North” program. “This is the right way to drive growth and spread opportunity across our country — to level up”, he said. 

    On top of this, Sunak said he would also replace A-levels and T-levels with an “Advanced British Standard”; and start a creeping ban on smoking for people born after 1 January 2009. That noise you hear — that’s the sound of a “30-year status quo” crashing to the ground.

    But the truth is: the dissonance between Sunak’s stated objective and policy prescription seems vast. 

    Both Cameron and Johnson told bracing stories about their version of change as Conservative party chiefs — first corralling consensus in a leadership campaign before driving through their respective reforms. They knew, and could explain explicitly, where they were taking their party from and to — as well as how they would marshal support, stare down the naysayers and take their party to the pinpointed destination. 

    Sunak, having already been prime minister for almost a year now, does not have that luxury: he, and his mode of politics, is the “from”. And as for the to and the how, Sunak proffers merely a new policy platform. Step back and this was not some grand vision of “change” informed by some fresh political methodology — there is nothing especially virtuous about what the PM is doing. Governments make policy announcements and U-turns all the time. 

    What is more, even though 17 of those 30 wasted years Sunak now righteously rubbishes have been overseen by Conservative premiers, the PM still refuses to call out his predecessors by name. In fact, Sunak said he didn’t want to “waste time” going over the past and the “difficult circumstances” in which he came into office on Wednesday. The only individual Sunak associated with this period in his speech was Labour leader and MP since 2015 Keir Starmer, who is apparently “the walking definition of the 30-year political status quo I am here to end”.

    That Sunak still refuses to directly and overtly repudiate his predecessors is significant. For by taking aim at Liz Truss, the prime minister could probably muster a far better narrative about the motives behind his swift transition from Rishi 1.0 to Rishi 2.0. If he was so bold, Sunak could insist that his dire inheritance — defined by post-Trussonomics politics — imposed upon him tyrannical structural constraints upon taking office. That was why he debuted five pretty apolitical pledges in January, and focussed unerringly on stable governance. But now, having reestablished economic credibility over the succeeding months, the “real Rishi” can take to the floor.

    In this way, it is Sunak’s enduring party management problems that currently make a more vigorous political reinvention impossible. As we saw repeatedly at conference, Sunak does not have the authority to impose himself on his party and stare down his critics; nor does have a clear faction behind him which might help drive intellectual energy to the fore. He simply does not have the capital, like Cameron and Johnson, to lead the Conservative party — much less the country — on a journey of true “change”. 

    This fact notwithstanding, there is within the Conservative Party a clear hankering for a change in direction. But the problem for the PM is that, among his own MPs, this desire for a new departure has no clear organising principle. In the Conservative party, as we have seen over the past week, different factions are openly challenging each other for control over its direction. 

    Sunak’s party hence suffers no shortage of intellectual energy, it’s just that no leading backbench MP seeks to channel it to his cause. Likewise, the PM shows little interest in adopting the policy platform of the “New Conservatives” and Truss’ “Conservative Growth Group” of Tory MPs — not least of all because their visions appear, on key measures, entirely opposed. 

    “More!”, Conservative activists shouted during Sunak’s speech on Wednesday. It was viewed as a light-hearted show of encouragement by the ostensibly obliging prime minister — not what it really was: a demand, an order, a challenge. But while this call for “vision” from the PM could not have been clearer, as for the details, the Conservative Party has long ceased to speak with one voice. 

    As far as further structural limitations on Rishi Sunak’s power go, here are some things that have not changed over the last week: the Conservative party is still deeply divided on the European Court of Human Rights, the Rwanda plan still faces a showdown in the Supreme Court, the tax burden is still at a post-war high, Liz Truss exists, and — most importantly — the Conservative party still languishes in the polls. 

    Indeed, a survey of voting intention, carried out for The Times by YouGov, found that Labour maintained its 21-point lead over the Conservatives this week. It means Sunak has not won a “conference bounce” for his party. 

    But here is one very significant thing that has changed over the past week: Labour’s electoral standing in Scotland. The party’s victory in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West, with a swing of no less than 20.4 per cent, means Starmer will be more and more presumed as the next PM. As far as Sunak is concerned, this begs an important question: how can one pitch for the future when prevailing wisdom suggests you will soon be history?

    On Wednesday, Sunak tried his best to answer this question — but he may have merely exposed how isolated he is among the competing factions that now comprise his Conservative party.

    Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Twitter here.

    Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our daily newsletter here.



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