Rishi’s sunk: The incompetence of our Prime Minister

Ben Curtis argues that Rishi Sunak is not just dangerously right wing and at the forefront of incredibly cynical politics, but that he is completely inept at both.

Rishi Sunak on a boat in the Dover Strait - photo by Simon Dawson

In modern Britain, hating the Tory party unites a great many people. Much of our political discourse and criticism of the government hinges upon our sentiments towards the most divisive policies dreamt up by the Tory party: those who lean left attack the “ugly politics” of the “malign” Rwanda policy, whilst those to the right condemn the plan for not going far enough. To criticise the Conservatives because of your personal objections towards their policies is of course your prerogative; I myself am certainly prone to it. To do so however overlooks a key simple detail; in addition to spearheading some truly cynical and ugly politics, Rishi Sunak is perhaps one of the most incompetent world leaders in memory.

It is not merely his embrace of right wing politics that deserves criticism, it is also that he is woefully inadequate when it comes to achieving his right wing dreams, a detail for which many of us are no doubt grateful. To her credit at least Liz Truss was adept at effecting change, the UK’s economy has certainly not been the same since. The salient point here is that Rishi Sunak is not sufficiently criticised for being an ineffective and incompetent political operator, an injustice I intend to rectify.  

“Sunak has pursued ugly politics and ugly policies, and has failed miserably in his pursuit of both.”

Consider his 5 promises set out in January of last year: Sunak aimed to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists, and “stop the boats”. Evidently economic recovery and emergent prosperity are the principal yardsticks by which Sunak should be judged, and in the most simple terms he has failed on this front. The national debt, which he promised to have fall as a proportion of GDP, was 1.9% higher in December 2023 than the year before. The vague promise to grow the economy is no more successful, overall growth amounted to a 0.5% increase between January 2023 and November 2023. Whilst these statistics may seem negligible, the tangible impact of Britain’s lacklustre economy does not constitute a success for Sunak.

The cost of living crisis is no less pernicious and around 41% of energy bill-paying adults say that it is “very or somewhat difficult to afford them”. Inflation may well have fallen, but to attribute this to Sunak’s policies is arguable; the Bank of England’s authority over monetary policy, having increased interest rates 14 times, means it is inaccurate to applaud Sunak alone for the reduction of inflation. It is telling that the standalone success of Sunak’s policy promises is dependent on the intervention of the independent central bank; the economic improvements he alone can effect have had a negligible impact, and 70% of Britons consider the Government to be handling the economy badly. Britain’s economic landscape is murky and unclear, and all that is certain is Rishi Sunak’s complete ineffectualness.

Evidently supporting and growing the economy is integral to Sunak’s pitch to the nation, constituting three of his five promises. The remaining two however, to stop the boats and cut waiting lists, are each a no more successful enterprise: net migration was “unusually high” in 2023 and the NHS is still in crisis, broken and falling apart. More specifically, the pledge to cut waiting lists in the NHS is no doubt important yet does little to alleviate otherwise entrenched problems such as staffing shortages and collapsing buildings, such that even if he were successful in cutting wait times, the NHS would still be as outdated and broken as it has been for years. Of course, he is failing at both: the number of people waiting for routine hospital treatment  reached 7.6 million in November 2023, an increase of around 400 thousand from the beginning of January when Sunak pledged to reduce them. In addition, Sunak has confounded expectations by exacerbating a crisis many thought could not get any worse; under his watch the junior doctors’ strike is believed to have impacted 86 thousand appointments and kept an estimated 25 thousand staff members off work per day. Sunak has overseen yet further deterioration in the NHS’s capabilities and has blatantly failed to deliver on his promise to protect it and improve waiting times. 

Sunak speaking at a conference in June 2023 - photo by Simon Dawson

“The story of the pledge to stop the boats is, in my view, a superlative example of political ineptitude – a terrible collision of xenophobia and incompetence.”

The story of the pledge to stop the boats is, in my view, a superlative example of political ineptitude – a terrible collision of xenophobia and incompetence. Sunak’s embrace of the policy has given licence to a right wing of the Conservatives who are desirous to end immigration entirely and who “dream” of planes to Rwanda. If one ventures beyond the needlessly divisive and hurtful discourse surrounding the policy, what is revealed is nothing short of a failure. No country on earth has ever succeeded in reducing irregular migration to zero, yet Sunak has nailed his flag to this absolutist mast, and he is simply not going to achieve his goal. Labour considers the policy an unworkable and unlawful “gimmick,” and it was described by Lord Carlile as “a step towards totalitarianism”. Simply put, the policy is unpopular. This pledge was designed to illustrate a commitment to wrenching control over Britain’s borders, yet on Sunak’s watch our immigration system is in complete chaos: the backlog in the asylum decisions having increased, now standing at around 94 thousand applications. Rishi’s dream to “Stop the Boats” is a textbook display of political stupidity; he has at once electrified the most reactionary sentiments in his party, set himself an impossible target, and pursued it with hostile legislation. Throughout he has been made an enemy of both the left and the right and has proved incapable of exerting control over either his party or the immigration system. Sunak has pursued ugly politics and ugly policies, and has failed miserably in his pursuit of both.

Rishi Sunak is a rare thing among Conservative politicians, who typically excel at making a (normally negative) impact: Liz Truss tanked the economy, David Cameron saddled us with Brexit, and Boris Johnson was, unfortunately, excellent at mishandling the Pandemic. Sunak, however, has done nothing. The Conservatives were divided when he came in and are certainly no more united now, and one struggles to point to a notable feat, positive or otherwise. When Sunak came into power the Tories were polling at 24%, now they hover around 21%, a minute difference considering the inordinate attempts made to revivify his public image and policy platform. Sunak’s tenure has been an exercise in complete ineptitude and ineffectiveness: his ambitions remain unfulfilled, and Britain is almost unchanged for the average voter. It is high time that we realise just how incompetent Rishi Sunak really is.