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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Mikey Smith

Rishi Sunak's 'do-over' lets Tories pretend the last couple of months never happened

The last time King Charles met someone richer than him, they allegedly left a Fortnum's bag full of cash behind.

Even so, after the rusty rollercoaster ride of the Truss administration, it's hard to imagine the monarch leaving his meeting with Rishi Sunak, the second Prime Minister of his young reign, with anything but relief.

There was little by way of solemn introspection in Liz Truss' farewell speech.

At the end of a premiership that lasted about as long as a decent haircut, she revealed that what she'd really learned from her time in Number 10 is that she was right and everyone else was wrong.

There were no apologies. No acceptance that there might have been a reason she was the shortest-serving Prime Minister in modern history.

Quoting Roman philosopher Seneca, she declared her economy-crashing plan a good one, but one the country had not been "bold" enough to accept.

It was like watching an extremely bitter version of Marty McFly telling 50's teenagers "I guess you guys aren't ready for" a radical, low-tax, free-market economic model, "but your kids are going to love it."

Seneca, incidentally, was forced to end his own life after being mired in a political scandal.

Liz Truss leaving Downing Street (REUTERS)

Truss' departure was perhaps understandably petulant, given she was handing power to a man she absolutely thrashed in an election six weeks ago.

But her rollercoaster premiership having been brought to a juddering halt, she strode out of Downing Street with a facial expression that screamed "I left a dead fish behind one of the radiators, but you'll never know which one."

Sunak, of course, played no part in her disastrous administration, presumably because even on his tippy-toes his head wouldn't reach the rollercoaster's "you must be this tall to ride" stick.

So for the next few weeks he gets to give the Tories a "do-over" - letting them pretend the last couple of months never happened.

"Mistakes were made," Sunak accepted in front of the big black door - after ordering Tory MPs not to applaud his arrival, for fear congratulating the party's third crack at a competent leader in as many months might seem distasteful.

But Sunak's big message was that neither Liz Truss' mistakes - nor Boris Johnson's falsehoods and law-breaking parties - should be seen as any indication his party weren't up to the job of running a country.

It can't be a good thing to have to spend a chunk of your first speech as PM arguing that a four year old election mandate - which predates the Truss crash, the Covid pandemic and all those fixed penalty notices - still counts.

Still, at this rate by the time 2024 rolls around the Tories will probably have run out of human MPs to install in Number 10, and we'll all be watching Dilyn the Dog claim he has an absolute mandate to govern and the party should rally round behind him. Walkies!

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