On Sunday night, Boris Johnson pulled out of the Tory leadership race, saying he had enough support to proceed but that “this would simply not be the right thing to do” and “you can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.” Penny Mordaunt failed to gain enough MPs’ support which meant, as the only surviving candidate, Rishi Sunak became Britain’s new prime minister.
This is one of the most spectacular political comebacks in modern politics. Sunak, who served as Boris Johnson’s finance minister and helped bring down Johnson by resigning, appeared to have a bleak political future after Truss beat him in the summer leadership contest. However, he’s since been vindicated by Truss’s bungling of economic policy, which sent the pound and the Tories’ polling to historic lows.
Sunak may be too polite to say, “I told you so,” but he also doesn’t have to. Astonishing though it is, the last leadership contest was less than two months ago. Sunak prophesied that Truss’s economic plan would turn out badly. Though Truss’s failures were more down to execution than principle, as Andrew Stuttaford has explained, he was ultimately proven right.
In a brief opening address, Sunak paid “tribute to Liz Truss,” highlighting the “profound economic challenge” Britain now faces. Sunak warned the Tory party that they must “unite or die.” But is it too late? Sunak is the best chance the Tory party and the British economy have for recovery.