Rishi Sunak has done so many relaunches it’s hard to keep track. The five priorities, the reshuffle, the spring Budget, Tory party conference, the King’s Speech, the second reshuffle – they just keep coming.
And now the Autumn Statement. When Jeremy Hunt delivers his update on the Government’s fiscal plans on Wednesday, it will be keenly watched as yet another key moment for future of the Prime Minister.
In his defence, much of this rhetoric comes from MPs and the media, rather than from inside Downing Street where Mr Sunak’s inner circle say they are devoted to a slow-and-steady approach rather than pegging everything to the flashy public moments.
But for the head of a party that is 20 points behind in the polls, every opportunity to grab the public’s attention and change the political weather must be grasped.
The Prime Minister is now making it clear that he wants to cut taxes immediately – even if the emphasis will be on reducing the burden on businesses rather than putting money directly back into ordinary people’s pockets. The key question is whether this will be enough to win over voters, or the many Tory MPs angry with the spiralling tax take and ever-expanding size of Government.
But perhaps Mr Sunak’s biggest problem is that many members of the public have simply made their minds up already. After 13 years of Conservative Government, including four years of unbridled chaos as Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss oversaw rolling crises on Brexit, Covid and the economy, polls suggest some feel they have seen enough to decide they want a change.
Mr Sunak argues that he is that change, untainted by the biggest errors of his predecessors and armed with a sheaf of serious policies to improve people’s lives over the long term.
Monday’s events at the Covid inquiry make that line harder to hold. We heard that when he was chancellor, Mr Sunak ploughed on with Eat Out to Help Out regardless of the consequences, ignored the input of scientists and even expressed indifference to the death toll of the pandemic.
He will have his own say in the coming weeks and will offer a robust defence of his record. But the danger is that a PM who wants to look forward remains ever dogged by the past.
