Just back from holiday in France and the French are as perplexed as I am. They cannot understand a seeming meltdown in the UK and that’s not just about the heatwave. Despite France’s own troubles, a UK government gone AWOL, a cost of living crisis, record inflation, 15 hour waits for an ambulance and still rowing about Brexit is starting to make them feel fortunate compared to our good selves. It probably won’t last but current challenges over here do appear somewhat self-inflicted…
And back in the UK, one reads in The Times that Tory voters have had a change of mind about Johnson and now want him back in the face of a Sunak or Truss premiership. Oh, the fickleness of the electorate! Only a few weeks ago a majority wanted him to go, a view supported by some 60 ministerial resignations. But apparently 49% of Tory supporters now want Johnson to stay, more than the combined support for the current contenders.
Apparently, a plague on both their houses…
The real problem of course lies in the lack of credibility at the heart of the leadership campaign. Again, according to The Times, 40% of voters who chose the Tories in 2019 said the contest had made them think worse of the Conservative Party whilst under a quarter were convinced of the candidates’ plans to tackle the cost of living crisis. Truss offers a tax cutting splurge immediately whilst Sunak advocates sound money and then offers tax cuts of one sort or the other now and in the future. Few are convinced as they vie for the attention of a wholly unrepresentative Tory membership.
And the aggression! Sunak is going for broke in tearing apart Truss’s economic plans. One can only think he plans to leave politics if he loses or believes Truss’s government will implode very shortly and he will be there to pick up the pieces saying, ‘I told you so’.
This is all fodder for Labour. One can only imagine the soundbites they are collecting for the next general election campaign. However, with a 15% opinion poll lead, it is theirs to lose and the gap in popularity has really only been built by the Tories destroying each other. Few understand what Starmer and his colleagues really stand for.
Today, it feels like a clear Truss victory, a brief Tory opinion poll recovery and then possibly mayhem. In the meantime, the country faces huge challenges as yet unaddressed. The outlook for the Autumn is stormy. Bring back the heatwave…
Inside Right Politics 