Written by Elizabeth Piper
LONDON (Reuters) – Frustrated at failing to send a clear message to British voters, Chancellor Rishi Sunak He called an election on Wednesday from a position of weakness.
Mr Sunak, 44, went into the election lagging far behind the opposition Labor Party in opinion polls and has increasingly relied on a small group of advisers to help him navigate an ugly campaign.
He has struggled to assert leadership of the ruling Conservative Party, and some MPs are already debating who will replace him after his election defeat was seen by many as inevitable. are doing.
Some party members say his tenure as prime minister was marked by missed opportunities. Some said he was more of a technocrat than a leader and unsuited for the job.
One Conservative Party insider said he had become increasingly distant. “His team often leaves him alone in the office. He likes to spend his time,” they said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “His default is to tell people they’re wrong — his advisers and members of Congress alike.”
Everything looked very different when the former investment banker and finance minister took office less than two years ago, inheriting an economy in crisis after financial markets balked at the shortfalls of his predecessor’s tax and spending plans. Liz Truss‘s short-lived premiership.
Mr Sunak, the UK’s fifth prime minister in eight years, initially focused on fiscal health, became less hostile to the European Union and succeeded in restoring a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland. It was evaluated that a certain degree of stability had been restored.
But many of the issues Trump has tried to address have been blamed on his own party, which has been in power since 2010, and he has struggled to define what he stands for. One Conservative lawmaker said Mr. Trump is more of a detail-oriented person than a big-picture person.
Many of his manifesto promises are boris johnsonWhen he stepped down as prime minister in 2022, he left the Conservative Party deeply divided and pushed to the right.
One MP said Mr Sunak restrainedly tried to rally MPs at a meeting of his own MPs in March, saying they were facing a “battle for their lives”, but soon a small number of members He accused his peers of “hurting everyone else.” Attend a meeting.
Mr Sunak has made several attempts to turn around the party’s fortunes, portraying himself as a bold reformer, a stable technocrat and now someone who will “stick to the plan” rather than “go back to square one”. . Labor will take over Britain.
Two tax cuts last year failed to sway opinion polls.
harsh political succession
When Truss became prime minister in the fall of 2022 after a chaotic 49-day transition, he faced what some politicians described as the most difficult economic and political succession for a prime minister since World War II. faced.
Financial markets were spooked, debt levels soared, and the party was deeply divided over the direction it should take to appeal to voters increasingly dissatisfied with Tory melodrama.
He reappointed veteran minister Jeremy Hunt as finance minister, restoring market confidence and some of the party’s reputation as a safe ally to the economy.
Britain’s youngest leader in modern times wanted to focus on implementing policy ahead of the election, but some party members say attention to detail often prevents quick decision-making.
Continued sniping by disillusioned Tory MPs means he is not being given the credit he deserves for what his supporters see as his successes. did little to alleviate feelings of dissatisfaction.
As tensions within the party worsened, Mr Sunak, surrounded by close aides who had supported him since his time as chancellor, felt increasingly frustrated and isolated.
“It’s a mess over there (No. 10),” one aide said on condition of anonymity earlier this year. “Sunak is in the bunker. The focus should be on delivery, but it’s very difficult to make decisions.”
personal property
Mr Sunak was born in 1980 in the southern British port city of Southampton to Punjabi-Indian Hindu parents, is married to the daughter of an Indian billionaire and is one of Westminster’s wealthiest politicians. It is.
Some critics argue that his vast personal wealth and elite, expensive education mean he is unable to empathize with the problems facing many people in Britain.
Voters are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis, the country’s health service is facing the biggest challenge in its history, and other infrastructure is in disarray.
Mr Sunak also highlighted some of the issues he feels his party’s right wing has done little to solve: stopping migrants from crossing the Channel, major tax cuts and what they see as a “woke” agenda in public life. He has also been criticized for challenging the current state of affairs.
Mr Sunak, whose approval ratings are even lower than Mr Truss’s, goes into the election with the hope that he can survive the attempted removal and at least stem the drain on support from the Conservative Party.
“We were told that the road to victory for us (the Conservative Party) would be narrow, but now it’s so narrow that we can’t even see it,” one Conservative lawmaker said on condition of anonymity.
(Editing by Elizabeth Piper and Alex Richardson)
