Part 2: ‘Rishi Raj’

THE accession of Rishi Sunak to the ultimate throne of British politics at Number 10 Downing Street as the UK’s third prime minister in as many months, was smooth.

Selected by fellow Conservative (Tory) Party parliamentarians in the House of Commons, Sunak was the second unelected UK PM in two months, crowned — but without a coronation.

Britain’s third woman prime minister Liz Truss was appointed (through the same route) by Queen Elizabeth II, just two days before she died, but was booted out of office six weeks later, rejected for the same reason she was selected to replace her predecessor, Prime Minister Boris Johnson – further damaging the party’s image at a time it’s already in tatters.

But the process of changing UK prime ministers and cabinets without facing the polls – from Johnson to Truss to Sunak – also brought to the fore all the interesting features that make Westminster politics the most demonstrable example of the elasticity of democracy.

Johnson had led the Tories to their biggest election majority win in 2019, but the moment the public polls started saying he may not be able to do it again, he got marching orders from members of the powerful centenarian 1922 Committee.

But Johnson had also ended his final address from Downing Street with the Latin phrase ‘Asta la vista!’ (‘Until we meet again’) — a promise he’d keep by flying home from a Caribbean holiday in the Dominican Republic last week, to announce he was in the race to return to Number 10.

The markets reacted negatively at the mere thought of Johnson making a comeback, but he insisted he had the required numbers in parliament to beat Sunak, who was actually leading – by far – in the ultimate first-past-the-post electoral horserace.

Sunak was always in the lead, but even after Johnson pulled out, his team said they were “taking nothing for granted”, as Tory Parliamentary Leader Penny Mordaunt was still in the race – and last time around he’d been defeated by Truss after victory was already in clear sight.

Sunak was also mindful of his deep unpopularity among rank-and-file Tory supporters, who continued to blame his resignation for the party’s latest woes.

He wouldn’t have wanted to place his only chance of becoming the next UK PM in the hands of the same party base that had rejected him for Truss.

Britain’s fifth consecutive Tory PM in 12 years, Sunak was selected against the background of the UK faring worst-of-all among the world’s seven richest countries, the G7.
But while he was belatedly acknowledged as having ‘led Britain through the COVID pandemic’ as Chancellor, leading Britain out of its worst recession in four decades and one of its coldest winters, ahead of a global recession, is another kettle of fish.

PM Truss baulked at and poured cold water over the stern advanced warning on October 5 by the UK’s power regulators of a possible ‘worst case scenario’ that could see Britons face at least three hours of daily blackouts during the coming winter.

With energy bills increased by 80 per cent as of October 1, Truss took steps to help citizens pay but only up to April 2023, to tap more North Sea oil and return to fossil fuels, reverse previous bans on or planned reductions in use of coal – and tap nuclear power into the national grid.

But what of Truss’ policies will Sunak keep or dump?
He passed his first test in office by calming the markets and tried hard to present himself in a better light to the millions of voting Britons who simply don’t know him well enough to give him the trust they never gave Truss.

After thanking Truss and accepting her resignation, King Charles III gave royal permission to Sunak to form the second British Government of his brief pre-coronation reign, following which senior Tories loudly boasted their party’s ‘ethnic diversity’, pointing to its selection of ‘The First British Prime Minister of Colour.’

However, during all the Tory leadership campaigns involving Sunak and appointment of Persons of Colour to top posts in the Truss government, the top non-white Cabinet ministers were seen, treated and regarded in a very different light by many of the Black, Asian and Mixed ethnic minority, referred to through the mainstream and online media as belonging to the privileged and exclusive billionaire class of UK politicians — and therefore, ‘They’re not representing us…’

Others have been bellyaching about the new PM not having sought or got a mandate from the voting public, with the Opposition Labour Party trying hard to force a premature General Elections (not officially due until 2024).

But as Opposition Leader Sir Keith Starmer and all others pressing for ‘Elections Now!’ also very-well know, that’s not how politics works in a Kingdom ran by a Queen for seven decades — and which has never had a national Constitution.

Not surprising, the unwritten rules and conventions that have guided British politics forever at and from Westminster, also allow for easy execution of otherwise complicated regime change exercises that aren’t impossible in republics, but rarely happen.

Sunak became PM by safely and successfully skirting the two most difficult routes – seeking a mandate from the national ballot box, or through a poll of party members nationally, as his short-lived predecessor just did.

Interestingly, Truss became PM on September 6 and Queen Elizabeth died two days later; the world celebrated International Democracy Day seven days later on September 15; and one month later, PM Truss started feeling the sharp edges of the long knives that has stabbed Johnson and Sunak, at her back.

In his first public statement on Tuesday, PM Sunak acknowledged Truss had taken difficult decisions during her short reign, but promised more difficult ones are also coming; and he pledged, in what sounded like a jab at Johnson, ‘to serve with integrity’.