Sunak’s game plan for saving the Conservatives

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s main challenge is to win the next election for a divided and unpopular Conservative Party and government which had seen five prime ministers in 13 years. The latest twist in the Sunak story is that he has fired Home Secretary Suella Braverman, the provocative right-winger who is expected to contest for the party’s leadership after the election, and he has brought back former prime minister David Cameron as foreign secretary.

James Cleverly moves from being foreign secretary to home secretary. Is Sunak sending out a strong message that aggressive right-wingers have no place in his team, or it an action of a desperate man losing control over party and government? It is being said that Braverman will continue to be on the offensive outside the government, and she will strengthen her corner in the party.

The return of Cameron carries a complicated and ambiguous message. Cameron took the risk of calling for a referendum on leaving the European Union (EU), now familiar as Brexit, but he was on the losing side, those who wanted to remain with the EU. Then he resigned after the referendum results were announced. So by bringing in Cameron, Sunak seems to be conveying that there are no sharp divisions in the Conservative Party, and the moderate Cameron is indeed the need of the hour. Will this move help Sunak and the Conservatives to improve their popularity rating which is now lagging 20 per cent behind Labour? The advantage that Sunak has over Labour is that he seems to be articulate and he has a plan to move forward in contrast to Labour leader Keir Starmer, who despite his forceful criticism of Sunak, the government and the Conservatives, does not have a well laid-out programme of what he and Labour would do when they win the election.

The provocation for the sacking of Braverman was an article she wrote criticising the police for being soft on pro-Palestinian protesters – there have been large protests in London in the wake of the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas – compared to its attitude towards right-wing protesters. There was an uproar in the opposition and in the media over this. It seemed bizarre that a home secretary should blame the police for bias. It is a fact that there can be no political meddling with how the police functions because it can be pulled up only when it violates the law. Braverman must have tried to rein in the police force and failed.

And her article can be seen as an expression of her frustration that she was unable to control the police. The home secretary accusing the police for being partisan is a bad sign for the government. Braverman chose to make the criticism to make her uncompromising political position clear. Sunak had no other option but to drop her from the cabinet.

The succession of Conservative prime ministers – David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak – shows an interesting phenomenon. Cameron was not a man with pronounced viewpoints. He seemed to represent the old school of privileged Conservatives. May too was the middle-of-the road leader. She like Cameron was against Brexit, but she changed her position and said that now the people have chosen to leave EU, then it is the duty of the government to implement it.

Johnson jumped into the fray with more of theatrics over Brexit than any settled views. He pushed through Brexit with enthusiasm, which was mistaken for strength of leadership. Truss strode the unpopular path of giving tax concessions when the economy was in turmoil. Compared to Truss, Sunak seemed a man with clear ideas of coping with the crisis through nuanced measures. But Britain’s economic woes have not ended.