But after his resignation from the chancellorship brought down Boris Johnson’s shaky home, a Tory insider said Rishi Sunak found himself with “the curse of Heseltine hanging around his neck”. Despite long being mooted as a possible future prime minister, Sunak tried to dismiss the parallel with the man who helped bring down Thatcher but failed in his own tilt at the top – before coining the famous political cliché: “He who exercises the knife never wears the crown.” It was only a matter of hours after Johnson stood on the steps of Downing Street on July 7 and announced he was bowing out when frantic jockeying for his replacement began. While Penny Mordaunt’s campaign had a video that had to be reworked several times and Tom Tugendhat’s logo was redone after suggestions he accidentally spelled ‘TIT’, Sunak’s close-knit team of advisers ensured Brand Rishi launched quickly and nimbly. Truss was the last candidate to launch her campaign – but she was counting on her attacks on the man who would become her main rival. “I am a faithful man,” he told the assembled audience. “I am loyal to Boris Johnson. I supported the ambitions of our Prime Minister and I want to fulfill the promise of the 2019 manifesto.” Liz Truss at the launch of her Tory leadership campaign. She showed her faith in Boris Johnson and grew in confidence as the race wore on. Photo: Kirsty O’Connor/PA Having secured endorsements from four former chief whips, Sunak hit the streets ahead of the race to garner votes. “In the parliamentary stage, he completely owned it,” said one MP who helped rally support among peers in the five rounds of voting. “But then everyone thought it was a dummy. There was probably a bit of arrogance then.’ Although he garnered an endorsement from failed leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt, many other walkouts – Sajid Javid, Nadhim Zahawi and then, eventually, Mordaunt – knew which way the wind was blowing and got behind Truss. A number of MPs switching sides to support the foreign secretary also boosted morale. Sunak’s supporters said that, in retrospect, he tried to win over MPs and talk over members’ heads to the general public. he had one eye on the actual electorate he would face as prime minister rather than the 160,000 or so people who make up the party’s base. Although Sunak’s personal ratings took a nosedive in the days following his resignation, Conservative members turned against him as the contest progressed. YouGov polls found a majority of them initially supported his decision to stand down, but this backfired in early August. Of those party loyalists who have an unfavorable view of Sunak, a fifth (22%) hold a grudge and see him as a backstab for getting Johnson to resign. His tax policies and performance at the Treasury were cited by 8%, while 7% cited a lack of trust and 5% considered him out of touch. A video of Sunak admitting to taking money from urban slums further dented his reputation. A “red wall” supporter MP said the comment – “made in a garden of heels” – created an “unhelpful narrative”. “I’ve had a storm of people saying this is proof the Tories don’t help constituencies like ours,” they confessed. Sajid Javid speaking at the launch of his campaign to become leader of the Conservative party. He later dropped out of the race but threw his weight behind Sunak’s rival Liz Truss. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Meanwhile, warnings of a cost-of-living crisis worsened. While Truss considered tax cuts, Sunak stood firm and insisted that doing so would only fuel inflation. There was a stir at Sunak’s campaign headquarters when early polls began to show Truss ahead of him — well beyond the margin of error. “There was a genuine belief on Rishi’s part that these numbers were wrong,” said an insider. In response, his campaign announced plans to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20p to 16p in the pound by the end of the next parliament and remove VAT from energy bills for next year to help with the cost of living crisis . “He lost his credibility and then he was desperately trying to get it back,” noted a Tory source who was not in either camp. “If he played a consistent message, it would have been clearly received.” They also said that Sunak would likely have been supported by those members who were driven to leave the party because of Johnson, but who thereby lost the right to vote in the contest. While Sunak’s allies hoped that Truss would fail to live up to his charisma and come off as blunder-prone on televised debates, she grew smarter and sharper. Right-wing newspapers The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail were hovering behind her, and Sunak’s team feared that the media narrative was being shaped so that their candidate would gradually fade out of the picture. By the time of the final turmoil in London, Sunak’s supporters were ready for another rise. Their man in the hall was greeted with rapturous applause as he took to the stage and declared: “Hello Wembley!” A source claimed that such was Sunak’s popularity, his supporters’ stand ran out of merchandise and that a match ensued when Truss’ rival supporters tried to cover his posters with their own. Michael Gove (left), Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy (centre) and his mother Usha Sunak (right) cheer him on during the final event at Wembley Arena. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA On the penultimate day of the campaign, a member of Team Sunak tried to underline their confidence in his victory by placing a £5 bet on the result. But one supportive MP merely grimaced: “I’m not sure I can boast about such a low figure.” The marks of the leadership contest will be long-lasting. A Sunak-supporting MP called culture secretary Nadine Dorries “savage” and admitted: “The nerves are very raw because of the way some people have behaved.” Another said the timing of the contest would be penalized by voters. “We have plunged this country into the unknown for so long while dealing with crises on multiple fronts – we cannot do it again,” they said. But Sunak’s team are satisfied that they ran a clean campaign. “We’ve channeled Michelle Obama – when they went low, we went high,” said one.
Rishi Sunak’s campaign in numbers
Sitting Broadcast Interviews: 9 (Today Program x 3, World At One, This Morning, Nick Robinson’s Next PM Special, LBC, Andrew Neil, Radio 2) Events: 130 (excluding 12 matches) Members met in the last six weeks: 30,000 Campaign emails sent: 1 million Number of volunteers in the campaign team: 60 Number of registered supporters: 35,000 Endorsements from MPs, councillors, PCCs, MSPs and WS members: 750 Kcal burned by an active campaign member at the final announcements: 4,500
