Like gambling addicts who, after losing the bulls and squeals, ask for a casino loan, Rishi Sunak has been up to his neck in pawn to put the last chips in the roulette for next year’s British election. In a twist typical of Formula 1, he dismissed the far-right Minister of the Interior, Suella Braverman, and brought former Prime Minister David Cameron out of the shadows, socially moderate and who – after making the historic mistake of calling the referendum of Brexit – ran a charmless and soulless campaign for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union.
If the move smells like a desperate move, that’s because it is. It has not worked for Prime Minister Sunak to present himself as a competent technocrat cleaning house after the chaos of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, nor as the anti-establishment rebel who had to change the way things are done, nor as the man that would fix the economy, reduce immigration and reduce public health waiting lists. So he has opted for relative moderation and to de-emphasize Brexit, until now the first (and toxic) commandment of the Conservative Party.
Sometimes life presents dilemmas, and Sunak has encountered one and has been tossing it around for some time: either look weak and keep Interior Minister Braverman (who could be from Vox) in office, despite the constant provocations, or dismiss her and irritate the more radical and pro-Brexit wing of the Conservatives. He has opted for the second, and some have immediately put the cry to heaven.
Braverman’s resignation has not been accepted, but she has been sacked as God commands for disempowering the police – the exact opposite of what an interior minister is supposed to do – days before Saturday’s big pro-Palestinian demonstration , accusing it of favoring left-wing groups, Islamists and movements such as the
It was not the first provocation by Braverman, who many political analysts believe had been seeking his exit from the Government for some time in order to be able to say everything he thinks without any conditions in the search for the leadership of the far-right wing of the Tories. He makes no secret of his ambition to lead the group after the more than likely defeat in next year’s general election (they are 24 points behind Labor in the latest poll despite internal divisions in the opposition over the conflict of Gaza), and for that he would have to defeat fellow minister Kemi Badenoch and perhaps the inspiration behind Brexit, Nigel Farage, recycled as a TV commentator.
Particularly conflicting are Braverman’s positions on immigration, speaking of “the arrival of a tsunami of foreigners” that dilute the country’s cultural identity (despite the fact that his parents come from East Africa and the Mauritius Islands) and giving wings to the replacement conspiracy theory, according to which whites are being replaced in the West by people of other races. More than a British conservative, she seems like a Trumpist or a Tea Party leader who radicalized the Republicans of the United States with her slogan of flag, family and religion.
But it is not only his positions on immigration that are controversial. Last week he proposed banning charities from donating tents to the homeless because, in his view, sleeping rough “is a free lifestyle choice and not a necessity, and we should not encourage it” . Despite its origins, it considers multiculturalism to be a scourge and an aberration.
The dismissal of Braverman has precipitated a reshuffle of the Cabinet, with changes in other ministries (Health, Environment, Housing…) and the passing of James Cleverly, until now responsible for Foreign Affairs, a supporter, in theory, of Brexit, but non-militant, at the Home Office (Interior). But Sunak’s big coup, as if he had kicked the slot machine, is the resurrection of David Cameron, who led the country from 2010 to 2016. There is only one premier precedent going back to Government as a simple minister: Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who did it under Edward Heath.
It’s a category flywheel. From prioritizing the vote of Brexit supporters and socially conservative former Labor voters seduced by Johnson, Sunak has moved on to trying to minimize the damage and at least keep on board the moderate Tories in the south of England who threaten to defect to the Liberal Democrats. He has repositioned the deck chairs and ordered the band to play different music, but the iceberg remains in place and the ship approaches it determinedly in the middle of the night.
Cameron, who has been made a lord through the fast track to be able to join the Cabinet, immediately brings specific weight to the foreign policy of the United Kingdom in the midst of the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. He is very pro-Israel, but with enough authority to tell Benjamin Netanyahu what it is, if the time comes.
Atlanticist, he wants to prioritize “relations with our allies” (Joe Biden is not happy about Brexit because of its repercussions in Northern Ireland). When he was prime minister he proclaimed a “golden age of relations with China” which lasted very little.
Some gambling addicts sign a self-prohibition from entering casinos in order not to be tempted to do so. But Sunak is not like that. With almost everything lost in the electoral roulette, he went to the window and signed a promissory note in exchange for a handful of chips.
