Why Rishi Sunak is the man for the job

His steady hand and clear understanding of the national mission is what this country needs

When, in the summer of 2019, the Conservative Party and the country faced the twin nightmares of Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister and Keir Starmer on manoeuvres to reverse Brexit, there was only one man who it was possible to imagine could prevent that catastrophe: Boris Johnson.

That was why I became the first of Theresa May’s Cabinet to endorse him, why I agreed to introduce him at the launch of his leadership campaign, and why I stood by his side through the dark and difficult battles leading up to the December 2019 election – and their sudden and complete vindication.

That is why I continued to support him after, at his request, I had left the Cabinet. I continued to do so, even while I observed with mounting misgiving the Government’s inexplicable want of direction and purpose as it was battered by the crises that assailed it, the lack of any obvious overarching plan to prepare and strengthen our country for a future beyond the European Union, and to tackle the pressing national challenges with which that future is bound to confront us.

I agree with David Frost on the urgent need for such a plan and sympathised with him in his frustration.

I continued to back Boris, even after the evidence was gradually extracted of dismaying indiscipline and insouciance toward the laws put in place by the Government to defeat the pandemic, and of his carelessness toward important conventions.

This was because he had been elected to lead that Government by a landslide majority, and it is no small thing to overthrow the recently expressed will of the electorate. But eventually the damage done to confidence in him was just too much.

It is a tragedy. But that is now all in the past. Now the whole Conservative Party must choose between the two candidates the rules have left us.

Just as in 2019, I am in no doubt where that choice must fall. I have sat in the Cabinet with both, but I am convinced that only one of the candidates possesses the seriousness of purpose, consistency of conviction and belief, the talent as a communicator and the human skills to unite the party and restore its reputation for mature and competent government – Rishi Sunak.

Rishi does not have to apologise for his previously held views on Brexit or any other matters dearest to the hearts of many Conservatives. He supported our leaving the EU from the start when it was not propitious for his career – a Leaver by conviction rather than convenience.

He has a clear understanding of the national mission that must now absorb all our energies, to tackle inflation and to restore the economy after the ravages of the pandemic, to consolidate Brexit by seizing its advantages, and to strengthen our country’s resilience and security at home and abroad.

Having commanded the Treasury through a period of unprecedented crisis, he has the maturity to know how to squeeze the best out of an imperfect Whitehall, to motivate, persuade and carry with him those who must implement the changes we need.

Two years from an election, and after the lost opportunities of the first half of this parliament, we cannot take risks with our reputation for good government.

Success will not be achieved by cleaving to the wilder shores of untested economic theory about the efficacy of tax cuts, supported by ever more mountainous debt, in the vain search for some quick fix. As Michael Howard has said, that was not Margaret Thatcher’s way.

It will come by the patient, steady accumulation of sound decisions in the service of a clear and coherent direction for our country.

It will require enormous skill, intelligence and courage, hard work and human empathy to understand and meet the aspirations and anxieties of the British people at this moment in our history, and to tell them the truth about the realities that face us.

It will take teamwork and backbone to implement the plan.

These were Margaret Thatcher’s qualities. They are Rishi Sunak’s also.