Martin Kettle helpfully explores the challenges facing Rishi Sunak’s new “Johnsonism without Johnson” administration (Sunak’s job now is not about securing a Tory win but merely avoiding an electoral disaster, 26 October). The old crowd-pleasing bluster and boosterism no longer work when appalling policy “mistakes” cannot be disguised, and demand painful correction.
Yet the Tories’ entrenched Brexit populism still requires promises of levelling up and “compassionate” government spending to avert too much economic misery. Coupled with nationalistic rhetoric and anti-immigration initiatives, these are surviving hallmarks of Boris Johnson’s time, and pose predictable problems for the Labour party, despite its emerging alternative economic programme and favourable poll ratings.
