I’m not going to write about Boris Johnson today. Like many people I can’t bear to watch this psychodrama any longer. We had Brexit, then the pandemic and now the tortured collapse of a Prime Minister’s dream while he clings, nails scratching across the door of No10 as the rumble of the Panzers coming to take him out get louder.
The last five years have been divisive and traumatic. Mental health for many is at an all-time low and money slips ever faster through our pockets as the cost of living soars. Those promises of a bountiful Brexit belong to another era, a sunlit land of taking back control before Covid literally ripped apart the world we knew. And for Johnson, this new dawn doesn’t suit his style of leadership, despite his many qualities.
This column is only going to look to the future, and I’m directing this at Rishi Sunak. Because the time is coming, Chancellor, when you will need to step forward and tell us what you would do with that great office. If voted in as Prime Minister you will inherit the problems of your predecessor alongside rising inflation, the energy crunch, an NHS that needs yet more urgent ideas for tackling the social care nightmare.
In other ways you will be able to wipe the slate clean: establish order, calm and integrity behind that black door. You must reach out across your divided, angry MPs and placate a public rightly furious that those that set the rules also broke them and then lied about breaking them in the most cavalier way.
Most of all you must restore trust in Westminster and politicians and how they conduct themselves. You have earned respect across the nation for furlough and emergency measures worth £400 billion. Today we learn the economy grew 7.5 per cent last year. But it is not the past we are concerned with anymore: we want to know how to get to the better future we were promised. It looks distinctly murky.
We urgently need to accelerate growth and need the detail on how you will attain that. That includes how that growth will deliver benefits for hard-working families across the country: not every announcement needs to be aimed at the Red Wall. There are a lot of great policies in the Levelling Up White Paper — you could really get behind it and ensure the Treasury gets over its traditional concerns.
That means devolving more money and raising spending powers for mayors. We need levelling up to be the most important mission we will ever embark on, but without punishing the South and the engine of London.
License North Sea oil and gas and allow fracking because we need to accept that gas is a transition fuel and then get on with more nuclear. Be more ambitious and really get moving on hydrogen, not just experiment with a few trials.
Take more risks post-Brexit because, as the clamours in your party are showing, we have failed really to reap the advantage of leaving the EU. Scrap regulations — including on bank bonuses — and make it easier for EU citizens to get work permits. Get moving on the City and allow finance to take advantage of new opportunities.
Set up equity and lending funds for SMEs in every region. In education, back T-levels and the new focus on further and adult education with enlarged funding. Stop stirring culture wars — this is a time to behave like adults. And the attacks on the BBC are self-defeating, as John Major said yesterday.
There remain quite a number in your party and voters who worry whether you have enough experience in government. I believe you will seek out the sage and wise to join Cabinet and form a broad advisory team. A good leader listens as well as acts. And those voices should include former Prime Ministers from both parties.
We’ve been at war. Whatever our opinion on Brexit, everyone wants to make it work. Jeremy Hunt would make a solid deputy, Theresa May has been on fire.
Other talents include Nadhim Zahawi, Liz Truss, Steve Barclay and Sajid Javid. Lord Frost and the ERG will hold your feet to the coals over Brexit opportunities and rightly so. George Osborne, the architect of devolution, if moved to the House of Lords, could pair with the excellent Michael Gove to deliver levelling up — a former chancellor will ensure it is judiciously funded.
Never mind a whole host of junior ministers who should be given a chance in Cabinet. And —a personal plea —make the Chief Whip a woman (dare I suggest Nadine Dorries?)
We are waiting Mr Sunak. Your country will soon need you.
