Rishi is no tax-cutting Nigel, booms Maggie’s Sir Bernard

ANOTHER body blow for Brand Rishi, this time from his Yorkshire constituency base.

Local hero Sir Bernard Ingham, Margaret Thatcher’s formidable chief press secretary, has told the beleaguered Chancellor to remove a portrait of his Tory predecessor Nigel Lawson from his Downing Street study.

The 89-year-old’s call is a typically rottweiler-like reaction to the repeated claims of Rishi Sunak’s spin machine that he aspires to copy his tax-cutting hero.

In a scathing article in the Yorkshire Post, Sir Bernard says he ‘nearly had a fit’ on hearing that Sunak put up Lawson’s portrait and asked: ‘Has the man gone mad?’

Yes, Lawson did cut taxes in the Eighties, but Mrs T’s formidable protector said he was ‘altogether too complex an animal for any sensible Chancellor to adopt as his pinup boy’ – especially since Sunak has taken the tax burden to a 70-year high. Lawson famously stood up to Thatcher, which is something Sunak’s PRs claim he does with Boris. But the record shows he invariably ends up backing down to the big-spending PM.

Also, amid talk of a post-Partygate leadership challenge, Sir Bernard reminds us that it was Lawson’s actions that allowed the ‘Europhiles and Wets to ditch’ his beloved Maggie. And the Hebden Bridge-born bruiser doesn’t rate Sunak’s leadership chances, saying the non-dom and US Green Card rows reflect ‘more political naivety’, adding: ‘What does it look like when a rich Chancellor and his wife with four mansions are rolling in it while he imposes tax increases on the public already faced with a cost-of-living crisis?’ All bad ‘optics’, he says, adding the jibe: ‘It would help if Mr Lawson’s photo no longer sat on his desk.’ Sir Bernard’s broadside isn’t limited to the Chancellor. He says: ‘One of the besetting sins of Boris Johnson’s government is to ignore the impact on public opinion of its actions – or inactions.’ Uncomfortable reading for already-nervous Tories.