During the latest ‘IPSOS Political Monitor’ assessment conducted between 17 and 23 January 2024, when the Britishers were asked, which party leader would make the most capable Prime Minister, 39% choose Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labor Party and 26% opted for Rishi Sunak, the Conservative incumbent: a clear 13% lead to the earlier one. The remaining participants of the survey commented neither or did not know. Similarly, according to the survey report issued by ‘Statistic Research Department’, a much more reliable source, issued on 20 February, 2024, just 20% of the participants declared Rishi Sunak as the best choice for premiership of the country, whereas 33% preferred Keir Starmer. Question arises that how Sunak’s image has altered after remaining one-year plus in the office? On 22 October, 2022, when he entered the 10- Downing Street, the public expectations were high: 25% expected him to be a ‘great’ or bare-minimum a ‘good’ Prime Minister, 29% ‘average’ and just 29% below that. Why this change in Rishi Sunak’s popularity graph? Needs to be discussed.
Actually, Rishi had entered the office committing to perform differently from his recent predecessors. He ordered noticeable enquiries of ministers and important functionaries accused of objectionable behavior, in contrast to Boris Johnson; and appointed ‘independent advisors’ on ministerial interests, unlike Liz Truss; but in vain. His government was gradually plagued by various scandals i.e. Gavin Williamson and Dominie Roab faced charges of treating colleagues poorly and had to step down, and Nadham Zahawi was dismissed over a tax scandal. These developments negated Sunak’s claim to lead a government of ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level’. Even, the recommendations from the ‘Committee on Standards in Public Life’ were mostly rejected and where he did accept them, it was with vague and half-hearted pledges to improve in the future, rather initiating any effective actions for the charge. The report of the ‘Institute for Government’ dated 25 October,2023, stated ‘Sunak missed his big opportunity to really reform ethics in government’.
A critical analysis of Rishi Sunak’s performance by Anthony Reuben dated 15 February, 2024 In the BBC is worth-reading. Rishi had set-out five priorities on 4 January, 2023: all were important and genuinely, the need of the hour. He committed to halve the inflation which stood at alarming 10.7%, within a year. He succeeded in materializing the commitment by decreasing it to 4.2% by the last quarter of 2023; however, the ambition for growth of economy could not be materialized, rather it shrank by 3% by the end of the year. The weak control over economy was reflected by the fact that the Bank of England had to adjust the interest rates as many as 14 times, during the same period, to check the price-hike so quickly. The public-debt rose to 97.7% in December 2023: 1.9% higher than it was one year back in the same month. Then, Rishi Sunak had committed that the waiting-time for provision of facilities by ‘National Health Service’ will decrease and the people will get the needed care more quickly; however, the pledge could not materialize. In December 2023, the over-all number of waits for non-emergency treatment in UK was 7.6 million, about 600, 000 higher than it was in December 2022. In a TV-talk on 5 February, 2024 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak admitted his failure in this context, however he expressed a hope that waiting list will considerably fall by the end of March, 2024. Moreover, the issue of stopping people from entering UK, particularly from Rwanda, through the English Channel, was grave. According to an estimate, 45755 migrants crossed into UK in 2022. Rishi-administration handled the problem effectively and the number of illegal entrants was squeezed to 29437 in 2023.
Keeping all the successes and failures of the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government in view, his future seems to be unsafe. Particularly, the loss of two seats by Conservative Party to Labor Party on 15 February, 2024 reflected clearly that which way the wind was blowing. Then, official admittance of ‘recession’ during an already going-on ‘cost-of-living crises’ added to the worries of the Rishi Sunak-led government. After these debacles the Tories, fearful of election defeat, started considering his replacement with Penny Mordaunt. A reasonable number of Conservatives believe that the party leadership is increasingly out of touch with reality and wrecking its own electoral prospects. They ‘call into question the leadership of Rishi Sunak and finally conclude that being the richest person to ever hold the office of Prime Minister in England, he is not an appropriate leader at a time when so many people in the UK are struggling financially’. Some of the Conservative heavy-weights want him to step-down; as number of polls held recently have demonstrated that Sunak is even less popular than his predecessor Liz Truss.
Parallel to these developments, ‘Reform UK’; the new political party formed by Nigel Farage has also added to the concerns to the Conservatives. The politician has been ‘a constant thorn in the Conservative’s side’ since long as leader of both the ‘UK Independence Party’ and the ‘Brexit Party’ More than once, he has pressurized the Conservatives to take increasingly right-wing positions. Recently, he embarrassed the ruling party by highlighting the illegal boat-crossings and irregular migration issue. Being a media-person he can manage to reach the public in ways most of other politicians can’t. ‘Reform UK’ is not a contender to power but it may snatch a sufficient number of Conservative votes that can make Labor’s path to government very easy’.
As a whole, all other issues apart, the ‘economics’ is going to play the decisive role in the up-coming British elections. Almost a year ago, Sunak had unveiled his intention to halve the inflation, bring-down the national debt and grow the economy; however, he has not been able to fulfill his commitments. Only, the pledge regarding ‘inflation’ has been partially met. It is on the basis of ‘economic reasons’ that Keir Starmer claims to turn the table on the Tories. It seems that Conservative Party, which has dominated British politics for past seven decades due to its reputation for ‘economic competence’ is going to ‘fall’ for its in-eligibility streamline the prevailing economic mess.
The last word: For Rishi Sunak; hard days seem to be ahead.
