HE has pledged to “govern as a Thatcherite” and once wore pair of £490 Prada loafers to a building site.
How multi-millionaire and former hedge fund boss Rishi Sunak – the third Prime Minister in seven weeks – will be able to connect with Scottish voters struggling with the cost-of-living crisis remains to be seen.
A poll published in August during the previous leadership contest indicated that regardless of who won, the new Tory leader was likely to persuade a significant proportion of Scots to back independence in another referendum.
Former chancellor Sunak scored slightly better than his rival Liz Truss – but only just.
Although most Scots – around 60% - said the outcome would not affect their opinion on the Union, 19% said would be “much more likely” to back Yes if Sunak won.
For Truss, the equivalent figure was 20% in the survey carried out by Survation on behalf of Edinburgh consultancy Diffley Partnership.
When it comes to the issue of another independence referendum, The National revealed in July this year that in 2017 Sunak suggested holding a Scottish independence referendum would be “hard to block” and that the timing should be after Brexit so the “choice is clearer for people”.
But he has since shut the door on any possibility of a Section 30 order for another referendum to take place, saying at the hustings in Perth that he “can’t imagine the circumstances” in which he would back it.
“We live in a union which is of course there by consent and by democracy, and I accept that,” he said.
“But I just don’t think that anybody thinks that now or any time in the near future is remotely the time to focus on this.”
During the same event, he also signalled a more interventionist approach, including greater scrutiny of the Scottish Government from Westminster.
He told Tory party members: “I want Scottish officials to be able to come to Westminster parliament to face questions in the same way that UK ministers have to do in Scotland.
“I do want to pass a law, if required, to ensure the SNP Scottish Government has to produce data about public services in a directly comparable way in the same way that we do across the United Kingdom.”
When asked if he would bypass the Scottish Government on spending he said this had already been started, adding: “We will do more of it.”
While his one-time rival Truss may have noticeably been channelling Margaret Thatcher during her leadership campaign, Sunak has also been clear about modelling his economic strategy on the divisive party leader’s approach.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph in July, Sunak said that his values are “Thatcherite” and that he was running as a Thatcherite, in a bid to portray himself as heir to the Prime Minister between 1979 and 1990.
“If I were privileged enough to become prime minister, I would deliver a set of reforms as radical as the ones Margaret Thatcher drove through in the 1980s to unleash growth and prosperity to all corners of the United Kingdom,” he said.
Sunak has already warned of “difficult decisions ahead” in his first speech as Prime Minister and there are expectations of looming public spending cuts to plug a huge hole in the public finances.
With the Supreme Court yet to rule on whether Holyrood has the power to hold a referendum, Sunak’s premiership has the potential to bring a boost for independence at the most crucial of times.
