Invisirishi’s disappearing act has presented Labour with an open goal

Sir Keir Starmer thought he was being clever when he called him the “blancmange Prime Minister who wobbled” at yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions.

Yet a bright pink pudding that clearly distinguishes itself from its dessert trolley rivals is not what Tory MPS think of in their current appraisal of Rishi Sunak.

Indeed, one of the reasons he is so heartily cheered by backbenchers shouting “more!” in the House of

Commons is because it is one of the only times the country gets to see him.

For while his “Big Dog” predecessor, Boris Johnson, was always in “hi-vis” mode, there’s a perception that it has been a case of lesser spotted Sunak since he assumed office on Oct 25.

In the 44 days that have passed, we have seen him address Cop27 (after first insisting he wouldn’t attend the climate summit in Egypt), travel to Indonesia for the G20 and give a speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet.

But there hasn’t been much peoplefacing, despite the country being in the grip of a winter of discontent plagued by a cost of living crisis and mass strike action. Not to mention the small matter of the Tories being 20-plus points behind in the polls.

As the normally Right-leaning Nick Ferrari put it on his LBC radio show: “Where is he? I know it got to the ludicrous point where, more often than not, you saw Boris Johnson wearing a yellow vest, walking around a cake factory or driving a bulldozer or what have you, but at least there was some energy in it.

“Isn’t the reality now that we have a rather over-promoted economist pretending to be the Prime Minister, with no policies?”

It was a harsh analysis in the face of what Sunak’s allies argue are unprecedentedly hard times that merit serious leadership – not showboating.

They also point to a Prime Minister who has historically been criticised for focusing on social media selfpromotion rather than getting on with the job in hand. “He is focused on delivering for the British people,” they insist, reminding critics of how successfully he has “steadied the ship”.

And, as Christopher Hope has confirmed in his latest Chopper’s Politics Newsletter, the premier will be out and about for the rest of the week in an effort to lose his Invisirishi tag.

But his absence until now has presented Labour with an open goal, not least following No10’s decision to put ministers in the media just three times a week, rather than every day as under previous administrations.

Although it has shielded Cabinet colleagues from being harangued every morning over the latest government flip-flop, it has created a vacuum that the Opposition has been only too willing to fill.

Enthusiastically taking the LBC bait yesterday, Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling-up secretary, said: “The bigger problem is not just that the Prime Minister doesn’t seem to have a clue what he wants to do or what direction to take the country in, but at the moment he’s just firefighting because the Government is in the grip of two groups of backbenchers, both of which are fighting each other, and nobody’s paying attention to what’s happening out in the country.

“Everywhere you go now there’s a sense that Britain’s not working. Whatever Rishi Sunak tries to do he’s thwarted by his own backbenchers.”

It is perhaps ironic that in his face-to-face meeting with Mr Johnson in September, when the former Cabinet colleagues tried to strike a deal over who would run the country following Liz Truss’s sudden demise, one of the reasons Mr Sunak triumphed is because he pointed out to his forebear that he had the support of the majority of the party.

According to one MP who was party to the negotiations: “Rishi basically turned round to Boris and said, we’ve got the numbers and you haven’t. If you stand against me then we will bring you down.”

Yet having been forced into embarrassing reverse-ferrets over housing, wind farms and now grammar schools, Mr Sunak is discovering to his cost that the Tory party remains ungovernable, regardless of who is at the helm.

While ‘Big Dog’ Boris was always in hi-vis mode, it’s been a case of lesser spotted Sunak since Oct 25