Rishi Sunak has hailed his reshuffle for bringing about “unity” in the cabinet. But beneath the surface, chaos is ensuing.
It is not just the ousted Suella Braverman who, with her mind on the top job, believes the prime minister lacks “the qualities of leadership that this country needs.” One MP, seemingly representing the view of many, said they were so fed up with the current state of the party that “we may as well try to see what would happen with a different leader” (emphasis added).
One backbencher has already submitted an angry (and terribly written) letter of no confidence against Sunak. It is reported that another six could follow.
Six is not a high number so far as no-confidence letters go, but it is expected to rise significantly if the PM decides not to pursue leaving the European Convention on Human Rights. Given that James Cleverly, the new home secretary, has already suggested that an exit is not on the cards, Sunak’s problems look set only to get worse.
Following Suella’s sacking, groups of the party’s more right-wing parliamentarians gathered to discuss the near future. One such group discussed whether the government was ever “going to embrace the realignment” of post-Brexit politics or not.
Responding to the drama on Monday evening, Peter Hitchens, columnist for The Mail on Sunday, said that frustration over the booting of Braverman and the welcoming of the most liberal of Tories, David Cameron, “may possibly signal … an actual split in the Conservative Party and the defection of quite large numbers of people to the Farage direction, which I think now must be a very strong possibility. There’s no other message which the remaining social, moral and political conservatives in the party could get from having David Cameron reappearing.” Where else, then, will they go?
Amid the disarray, the much smaller—yet growing—economically left and socially right-wing Social Democratic Party has already pointed to a “large spike” in membership. Reform UK added that voters hoping to see immigration lowered “will not now get those policies delivered by the Conservative Party,” suggesting that voters should look elsewhere.
But, in what has turned out to be rather poor timing, Nigel Farage, who is usually able to persuade a large portion of British conservative and right-wing voters to back one cause or another, is taking about a month’s break from politics to take part in “Bushtucker Trials.” The former UKIP leader is reported to have bowed down to years of pressure to appear on the I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! television programme, famous for showing celebrities being dunked in goo and eating kangaroo testicles, after being offered a record £1.5 million (€1.72 million). A fairly fitting image of the current state of Britain’s Right.
