So Rishi Sunak is our new Prime Minister.
Do you feel reassured by his appointment?
Has a feeling of calm washed over your worried soul?
The Tories certainly hope so.
They hope that their decision to crown Rishi Sunak as their new leader will provide the public – and the markets – with a sense of stability that has been so absent in recent months.
In the immediate aftermath of Sunak securing the top job, the message from Tory MPs was clear: it’s time to move on.
They want the public to forgive and forget their recent errors (they were a whole Prime Minister ago!) and get behind Rishi in the national interest.
They would like you to believe the recent political and economic turbulence we’ve experienced was a minor blip.
Nothing more than a gentle ripple in the otherwise calm waters of Tory rule.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, we know exactly how long these merchants of chaos have been in operation.
They demonstrated their unfitness to govern long before Liz Truss made her brief guest appearance in Number 10.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak: another symptom of a party that’s lost the plot
We have a new Prime Minister in Rishi Sunak, but the many crises the country faces haven’t gone away.
Families are worried about how they are going to stay warm and fed over winter.
Yet the architects of this series of unfortunate events still think they retain the moral authority to lead.
They take no responsibility for the last decade of Tory mismanagement, as they punt the job of Prime Minister back and forth without deeming it necessary to consult the electorate.
Conservative MPs now occupy an alternate reality: a topsy-turvy land where it has been decided that only they can be trusted to provide strong and stable leadership.
Deluded doesn’t quite cover it.
Congratulations @RishiSunak on being appointed as Leader of the Conservative Party and our next Prime Minister.
You have my full support.
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) October 24, 2022
They’ve completely lost the plot.
I am currently battling with the worst cold I’ve ever had.
I’m a broken shell of a woman.
My body comprises 90% snot, 10% abject misery.
So, at the weekend, when I first read reports hinting at a Boris Johnson comeback, I thought it must be a side effect of the heavy duty flu medication I’m on.
But no, it was real.
A sizeable number of Conservative MPs really did want Boris to become our next Prime Minister.
They planned a sequel that the general public neither asked for nor wanted. A bit like Sex and the City 2.
We avoided that particular catastrophe but be in no doubt; there are many more to come.
Safe pair of hands? We’ll have to take the Tories’ word for it
Our new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak might enjoy the unearned title of being a “safe pair of hands”.
But his appointment is merely a temporary sticking plaster for his party (and the country’s) woes.
His colleagues see no problem with that, of course.
The Tories have crowned Rishi Sunak without him saying a word about what he would do as PM. He has no mandate, no answers and no ideas. Nobody voted for this.
The public deserve their say on Britain’s future through a General Election. It’s time for a fresh start with Labour.
— Angela Rayner 🌹 (@AngelaRayner) October 24, 2022
For them, the only thing that matters is their own self-interest and their prospects in the next General Election.
Poll after poll shows the public want a chance to have their say now, not in two years’ time as currently planned.
Rishi Sunak might be more polished than his predecessor, but he is still relatively inexperienced.
The expedited leadership contest didn’t allow for proper scrutiny of our newly-minted leader.
It is a democratic outrage that he was crowned Prime Minister after a week-long contest where he didn’t take a single question from journalists.
He hasn’t outlined any of his policy plans.
We have no idea how he plans to tackle the big issues of the day.
Ordinary people didn’t get a say in who the next prime minister would be.
The Conservative Party – once again – took that decision for us.
Far from being a step towards stability, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is just yet another step into the unknown.
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