Britain’s new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak must lead as a conservative or risk becoming the only government led by a socialist since the 1950s. He will have to decide which route he takes – while he is still on a short leash from the new ultra-nationalist coalition government.
After just two years in power, Britain’s new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak must lead as a conservative or risk becoming the only government led by a socialist since the 1950s. He will have to decide which route he takes – while he is still on a short leash from the new ultra-nationalist coalition government.
The choice of his party has not been a particularly wise one. After initially trying to present themselves as the only real left wing option, they now face a choice between being the only centre left party or the only centre right party.
After first announcing they wanted to be voted into power as the only truly centre left party they then had to backtrack and say they wanted Britain to remain in a reformed EU and that the country would not be independent. In short, they lost any remaining claim to being the only “true” centre party.
Now Sunak is asking the UK electorate for the kind of “confidence” that can only be obtained if they promise to leave the EU, and as a result the Conservative party is now heading towards becoming the “only real” centre party.
The only problem is that in the short term this could make it look like a lot of voters have made a fundamental mistake in voting for the Conservatives.
Not for nothing did the former Chancellor George Osborne, who was voted in as May’s Chancellor a month ago, say in the House of Commons that he wanted to “leave” the European Union.
The problem is that while this may be true for the time being, in the long term it is very unlikely to matter as the Tory party is already on a very slippery road.
As the party has now shown that it is more comfortable with the status quo (where the status quo means keeping Britain in the EU) they will have to either do the opposite or move to the left. At the moment they are not
