Sunak’s soaring popularity may have made him a target for ‘malign forces’
‘Some suspected his careless handling of his private jottings may not have been entirely accidental’
‘Rishi is a serious threat – not necessarily to the PM – but other, ambitious Cabinet ministers’
Embarrassment normally ensues when ministers find themselves in the compromising position of having their notes caught on camera. Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, was left red-faced when paperwork revealed NHS workers were “fleeing the UK” because of a hard Brexit in 2017. It came after notes carried by an aide to Mark Field, a former foreign minister, revealed the UK’S negotiation strategy with the EU was to “have cake and eat it”.
Even Theresa May fell foul of photographers when a memo was snapped going into No10 revealing her plan to approve new grammar schools.
Yet Rishi Sunak appeared comparatively unperturbed yesterday after highlighted notes revealed there would be “no horror show of tax rises”. The Chancellor was seen clutching the hand-annotated document ahead of a showdown with new Tory MPS in a bid to quell dissent on the back benches.
Tory unrest over the Government’s handling of the pandemic was compounded over the weekend when The Sunday Telegraph reported that Treasury insiders were pushing for “the largest tax rises in a generation”.
Little wonder that some suspected Mr Sunak’s careless handling of his private jottings in front of a phalanx of photographers outside No10, may not have been entirely accidental.
The supposedly inadvertent divulgence could not have come at a more convenient moment.
Although Mr Sunak warned there would be “difficult” times ahead, his reassuring words that “this doesn’t mean a horror show of tax rises with no end in sight” will not only have helped to calm the nerves of Tory MPS but also Conservative voters.
Yet in his meeting with MPS, Mr Sunak is understood to have said the “British people” deserve to be treated “with respect”, insisting: “We cannot, will not and must not surrender our position as the party of economic competence and sound finance.”
As the Thatcherite free marketeer finds himself in the seemingly oxymoronic position of having to plug the growing deficit while ensuring the Tories remain the “low-tax party”, Mr Sunak faces the same dilemma that plagued predecessors over the years.
He is caught between the Treasury’s desire for fiscal discipline and Downing Street’s demand that all pronouncements play well politically.
As a senior Tory source explained: “Rishi is going to have to make the switch from being Father Christmas, handing out free furlough cash and hot dinners, to Scrooge, clawing the money back in any way he can. It’s always been in the Treasury’s DNA to balance the books, but most of their tax-raising ideas are politically idiotic. The most successful chancellors are the ones who realise that.”
Confusion still reigns over who briefed the tax-rises story when both Downing Street and the Treasury now appear to be distancing themselves from it. One theory is that major tax rises have been pitch-rolled to prepare the electorate for more modest adjustments – along with further spending cuts – when the time comes.
But some Tories fear Mr Sunak’s soaring popularity may have made him a target. As he rides high in the approval ratings, there are suggestions “malign forces” may be at work against him, in the week Dominic Cummings and Michael Gove established a new “mission control”.
The move is designed to ensure No10, the Treasury and the Cabinet Office work more closely together, but some Tories see it as a “power grab” by the former education secretary – and his former special adviser.
“Rishi is a serious threat – not necessarily to the PM, to whom he remains fiercely loyal – but other, ambitious Cabinet ministers,” said one Tory MP. “Is he in favour of huge tax rises? I seriously doubt it. Of course all this is being discussed behind closed doors but he’s looking at ways to make savings that create the fewest problems – both for him and the Government.”