All posts tagged: Sunak

More people now prefer Sunak government to Starmer’s, poll finds

More people now prefer Sunak government to Starmer’s, poll finds

Published by Sam

More people now prefer Rishi Sunak’s government to Sir Keir Starmer’s administration, a poll has found. A survey by think tank More in Common shows the Labour Government is already less liked than the previous Tory one, despite taking power less than three months ago. The poll of 2,080 adults showed that 31 per cent preferred Mr Sunak’s government, while 29 per cent preferred the current one. It comes after a rocky start to Sir Keir’s time in Downing Street amid a series of rows over clothing donations by Lord Alli, a millionaire Labour peer, and cuts to winter fuel payments. The Prime Minister’s net approval rating with More in Common has now fallen to minus 27 per cent, down 38 points from when Labour took office. It is a stark contrast to the reception that Sir Tony Blair received at a similar point following his own landslide in 1997, when it was reported his net score was as high as 93 per cent. About one in five voters (22 per cent) now think Labour …

Sunak faces long goodbye as he fills in during Tory leadership contest | Conservative leadership

Sunak faces long goodbye as he fills in during Tory leadership contest | Conservative leadership

Published by skeptic

Little over a year ago, when Sky News’s Beth Rigby asked Rishi Sunak what it felt like to lose, he didn’t know what to say. It’s a question he will have the chance to ponder as the leader of the opposition over the next three months. Day in, day out, Sunak will be tasked with holding accountable a party and prime minister who defeated him resoundingly in July’s election. When he hands over to his successor on 2 November after an extended Conservative leadership contest, Sunak will have been leader of the opposition for 121 days, longer than any defeated prime minister since James Callaghan lost in 1979, according to analysis for the Guardian by the Institute for Government. In the decades since Callaghan, prime ministers and opposition leaders have tended to exit swiftly after defeat. John Major held the fort for 49 days after Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997. Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband both departed immediately after losing elections, both times handing over temporarily to Harriet Harman. The prevailing view has been …

Sleazy, inept and unbelievable – this sorry Sunak campaign sums up the Tory years | Andrew Rawnsley

Sleazy, inept and unbelievable – this sorry Sunak campaign sums up the Tory years | Andrew Rawnsley

Published by skeptic

I ought to have put money on it. When a downpour-drenched Rishi Sunak made his soggy start to this election, I suggested to you that the Tory campaign could simply unravel. So it has proved. What SpaceX might call “a rapid unscheduled disassembly” has left the forlorn Tory leader standing stranded in a heap of smoking wreckage. The disintegration was epitomised by Thursday night’s set-piece encounter on the BBC between the prime minister and a studio audience. With the finishing post coming into view, here was one of the remaining opportunities for Mr Sunak to ask voters to take a fresh look at his party before they decide to hurl it from office and place a more searching focus on Sir Keir Starmer before he is installed in Downing Street with a potentially steamrolling majority. Rather than get on the front foot, yet again a punch-drunk prime minister was seen reeling backwards, this time over the betting scandal that is engulfing his party. Their bitterest enemies couldn’t have done a better job of painting the …

Marina Hyde on Sunak and class, my parachute failed at at 4,000ft, my gaming-addicted son, and a new approach to quitting smoking – podcast | Life and style

Marina Hyde on Sunak and class, my parachute failed at at 4,000ft, my gaming-addicted son, and a new approach to quitting smoking – podcast | Life and style

Published by skeptic

Marina Hyde on poor Rishi, who had to go without a Sky subscription as a teenager; Chris Godfrey spent a decade trying to quit smoking, then he tried hypnotherapy and it changed his life; when Jordan Hatmaker pulled the string of her parachute, she realised something was very wrong; and ‘My grownup son is gaming all day and lives on takeaways’ – Philippa Perry offers advice to a mother How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know Source link

Rishi Sunak Dodges Questions About Tory Cabinet Election Bets

Rishi Sunak Dodges Questions About Tory Cabinet Election Bets

Published by Sam

Rishi Sunak has failed to deny that cabinet members are among the Tories to place bets on the date of the election. Three Tories with close links to the prime minister, as well as one of his close protection officers, are being investigated over the allegations. The Conservatives have confirmed they “have been contacted have been contacted by the Gambling Commission about a small number of individuals”. That has led to speculation that more Tories may be caught up in the scandal. At the launch of the Tories’ Welsh manifesto today, Sunak repeatedly dodged questions about the affair. He was asked by a reporter from LBC: “Are you confident none of your cabinet members have also placed a bet?” The prime minister replied: “The first thing to say is I was incredibly angry when I learned about these allegations – the same anger that many of you will feel and everyone watching. “It’s right that they are investigated thoroughly, these are serious allegations. Right that they are being thoroughly investigated, as they are being. Independently, …

It’s the Sunak syndrome: you’re richer than the king but only ‘pass’ at being posh. That’s the class system for you | Marina Hyde

It’s the Sunak syndrome: you’re richer than the king but only ‘pass’ at being posh. That’s the class system for you | Marina Hyde

Published by skeptic

Psychologically speaking, I feel I understood the last two prime ministers only as they were leaving us. With Liz Truss this might seem understandable, given she was in office for 10 minutes. Then again she had been around for years – yet it was only watching her final days, and then reading one illuminating political obituary, that I felt I got it. “I met Truss at university,” wrote Tanya Gold in Politico, “long before she entered real politics, and she mirrors and watches, as if trying to learn a new language. That is why she is stilted and ethereal: that is why she cannot speak easily or from the heart.” Ah, I see, I suddenly thought. Why had I not got it before? My surmises felt further confirmed reading Rory Stewart’s political memoir, when Truss asks how his weekend has been. “I explained that my father had died,” Stewart writes. “She paused for a moment, nodded, and asked when the 25-year environment plan would be ready.” Was Truss being deliberately heartless? Or did she, in …

Rishi Sunak Ridiculed Over Comment On Government Spending

Rishi Sunak Ridiculed Over Comment On Government Spending

Published by Sam

Rishi Sunak’s latest attempt to post an inspiring message on social media has only triggered a fresh wave of mockery. On Tuesday, the prime minister posted on X (formerly Twitter): “You will always be better at spending your own money than the government is.” While this sentiment seemed to come out of nowhere, it is likely linked to the Tory manifesto which Sunak unveiled hours before. The Conservatives promise voters that if they were re-elected, they would introduce £17billion of tax cuts. You will always be better at spending your own money than the government is. — Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) June 11, 2024 But, this post probably did not land on social media how the prime minister had envisioned it would. Although it was viewed more than six million times in less than 24 hours, a majority of the comments were less than flattering… Most questioned what sort of election campaign strategy this was, and mocked the idea of individuals funding government services. Openly admitting that the government has done, and continues to do, a …

General election: Media not ‘allowed anywhere near’ Sunak during weekend campaigning after ‘farcical’ D-Day fiasco | Politics News

General election: Media not ‘allowed anywhere near’ Sunak during weekend campaigning after ‘farcical’ D-Day fiasco | Politics News

Published by Sam

Tory HQ has released pictures of Rishi Sunak on the campaign trail after media minders sought to shield the embattled prime minister in the wake of his D-Day departure gaffe. Journalists were kept away from the Tory leader for a second day as he canvassed support in Bedale, Yorkshire. With just weeks to go before the election, the move to only post a handful of selected images on the Conservative Party’s official Flickr account showing the prime minister’s campaigning efforts on Sunday has fuelled accusations Mr Sunak is “dodging” scrutiny following the France fiasco. Election latest:Labour manifesto will contain no ‘tax surprises’ – Starmer Image: Pic: Conservative Party/Flickr Image: Pic: Conservative Party/Flickr On Saturday a planned “huddle” with journalists, providing an opportunity for reporters to quiz the prime minister, was pulled with the Tories citing time constraints. Sky News’ political correspondent Serena Barker-Singh says it shows Mr Sunak is “clearly feeling the pressure”. She said: “The media haven’t been allowed anywhere near him really. “We have just been sent some photos from his Flickr account …

D-day deserter Rishi Sunak didn’t do his duty, so why should gen Z be expected to do theirs? | Martha Gill

D-day deserter Rishi Sunak didn’t do his duty, so why should gen Z be expected to do theirs? | Martha Gill

Published by skeptic

Rishi Sunak is in an unfortunate position. Anything he does that even slightly cuts convention will now be read as a terrible blunder. Once a narrative like this picks up steam it is hard to stop. The press wants to add to the story arc. A delighted Labour will help it along. And perhaps even some of his own camp, looking for a scapegoat in the coming election defeat, will be rooting for him to fail. There’s really no spinning his latest gaffe. It’s quite the decision to aim your entire campaign at those who care about the Second World War, and then to D-day ceremony, leaving veterans standing. Is this match-fixing, you wonder? Some wild scheme – a Westminster version of Mel Brooks’s film The Producers – to turn the campaign into a notorious flop and then somehow profit? The Conservatives have sacrificed their chances with wide swathes of voters in pursuit of a traditionalist core. Insulting war heroes is rarely a wise move. But here it may be fatal. What we saw last week …