The past week has shown Rishi Sunak to be the most inept political campaigner I can remember
An out-of-touch premier with a woefully underdeveloped set of political beliefs will be the Tory party's greatest weakness at the forthcoming general election
POLITICAL pundits often go on about politicians missing “open goals”. The first time I remember that footballing analogy being used was way back during the Westland scandal of the 1980s when Neil Kinnock was deemed to have let Margaret Thatcher off the hook by being far too verbose during crucial Commons exchanges.
Yet Rishi Sunak’s performance during the furore which surrounded the Commons Speaker changing parliamentary procedures at the behest of the Leader of the Opposition was worse than missing an open goal.
To characterise it in football terms, it amounted to turning away from the gaping goal, dribbling the ball down the other end of the pitch and sticking it in your own net.
Because a week after Keir Starmer in effect took a knee to the Islamist bully boys, our left-leaning main broadcasters are instead all focusing on supposed “Islamophobia” in the Tory party. And Sunak’s ineptitude is the main reason for them getting away with that.
Astonishingly, the Prime Minister never grasped – or chose not to grasp – the nub of the issue when any moderately high calibre Conservative politician would have done so.
For example, the former Attorney General Geoffrey Cox made several TV appearances in which he nailed it, telling viewers in one: “The buck must lie at the Leader of the Opposition’s door. He aspires to lead this country and yet he has made arguments to the Speaker that we should alter our procedures in this House because of the risk to MPs and intimidation. That would have people who occupied this House over the years revolving in their graves.”
That’s the story right there: man who wants to lead Britain not fit to do so; giving ground to the mob at a time when millions of voters are increasingly anxious about the growing reach of radical Islam. Tory poll bounce incoming, surely.
Cox is not on the right of the Tory party but is simply a seasoned pro- with a good brain who benefits from the gravitas bestowed by his rich lawyer’s voice (that is, the voice of a rich lawyer and the rich voice of a lawyer).
Yet not once did Sunak go for the Starmer jugular on this issue, instead focusing his weakly-worded criticisms on the Common Speaker. Were Lindsay Hoyle the man he will be up against at the general election that might have made sense. But, err… he isn’t.
In a written statement from Downing Street that didn’t even mention Islamism, the most punchy Sunak got was when he said: “In Parliament this week a very dangerous signal was sent that this sort of intimidation works.” But that statement did not mention the Leader of the Opposition either and any fair reading of it would conclude that the Commons authorities were the ones in its sights. In fact the biggest lesson of the furore for Sunak was: “I am proud to be the first British Asian prime minister. But I am even prouder that when it happened it was not a focus at all…it is proof that we are the most successful multi-ethnic democracy in the world.” In other words, this is no big deal and everyone should seek to be more like me.
Having failed even to try to stick it to Starmer, Sunak then played the role of useful idiot for Labour after Lee Anderson attempted to do just that in a typically ill-thought-through manner. Anderson said that Islamists controlled Starmer and controlled London Mayor Sadiq Khan. He then added a Khan-specific jibe about “handing over our capital city to his mates” (ie Islamists).
That lit the blue touch paper for all those politicians who had been squirming about the ceding of ground to intimidatory pro-Palestine ultras. Now they could talk instead about Islamophobia. Significantly, it was the Tory’s own “One Nation” wing which led the charge. People like Lord Barwell, Lady Warsi, Sunak’s close friend Sajid Javid and former Cabinet minister Sir Robert Buckland.
Instead of seeking to marginalise the views of a single backbench MP who had expressed himself badly and address the main issue in more considered and persuasive terms, Sunak succumbed entirely to the new media narrative by withdrawing the whip from Anderson.
Suddenly the top story on the BBC, ITV, Sky and Channel Four News for day after day was the alleged bigotry against Muslims that existed within the Tory party. For left-of-centre people this will merely have deepened their resolve not to vote Conservative. For right-of-centre people the ditching of Anderson, previously lauded by Sunak as an authentic Red Wall figurehead, will merely have deepened their resolve not to vote Conservative.
When Labour chairwoman Anneliese Dodds sought to push home Labour’s unearned advantage by challenging Sunak to accept the definition of Islamophobia used by the left-of-centre parties, it was left to Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch to push back.
She pointed out that such a definition risked making it illegal to criticise the belief system of Islam itself and for that reason ministers preferred to use the term “anti-Muslim hatred”.
But Transport Secretary Mark Harper – a bit of a clone Sunak himself in terms of his ineptitude when discussing social issues – clearly hadn’t got the memo when he represented the Government on the airwaves the next day, not once pushing back against Mishal Husain’s exploitation of the Islamophobia trope on Radio Four.
A Prime Minister with basic competence and good political instincts – Badenoch, Cox, whoever – would have emerged from the week having made decisive ground against Starmer on the crucial question of leadership calibre. They would also have made the point that Islamophobia is a junk term beloved of those who would appease aggressive Islamists.
Islam is not a race but a belief system. A phobia is an irrational hatred. For the term Islamophobia to be honest one would have to conclude that there is nothing about this belief system that could justifiably instil rational fear. I know what 99 per cent of those who might be open to voting Tory at the next election would think about that.
Apparently, the Prime Minister does not. Or possibly just agrees with Labour. Or
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