The Tories fire at Sunak before his first National Conference as Conservative leader

Rishi Sunak arrives at his first National Conference as Conservative leader with all the winds against him and in the midst of the reopened war between the Tory tribes. Labor is 18 points ahead, 34% of voters have defected (according to an Opinium poll for The Observer) and the last four premiers – from Boris Johnson to David Cameron, including Theresa May and Liz Truss – have criticized him openly for their decisions.

This is the emaciated panorama that awaits the president upon his arrival in Manchester, with general unrest over his alleged plans (neither denied nor confirmed) to give up the northern section of the high-speed train and the indefinite delay in lowering taxes. that the bases demand.

“The best tax cut is to halve inflation,” Sunak declared in a BBC interview, without needing to remember that the United Kingdom still has one of the highest inflation rates in Europe (6.7%) and that the British economy has not quite taken off with its recipes, despite the banker and technocrat packaging with which Sunak came to power.

In a tacit acknowledgment of his own mistakes since arriving at Downing Street in October 2022, Sunak admitted yesterday that “the country wants change” and promised to “do things differently to bring about that change.”. Criticized for his lack of vision for the future and his limited contact with the British, the “premier” has wanted to give a populist turn to his mandate with his retreat from environmental policies and a hard line on immigration.

The slogan with which the comeback is planned, “Long-term decisions for a brighter future”, has been quickly dismantled by comedians as “Short-term slogans for continued decline.”. Even the analyst John Curtice, considered the oracle of British politics, now predicts “a crushing defeat” for the Tories in next year's elections.

The revolt of the premiers

All together, the former premiers have fired under Sunak's waterline over the news about the possible suspension of the HS2 high-speed train to Manchester due to excessive costs. From his column in The Daily Mail, Boris Johnson has warned Sunak that this decision would be “a betrayal of the north of the country” and reminded him that China has built a 40,000 kilometer high-speed network since 2009, while the Kingdom Kingdom has not added a single kilometer to the only existing line (the Eurostar). Theresa May and Cameron have also stressed the importance of bringing the controversial HS2 to Euston and not skipping the final eight kilometers to central London. The endless strikes of the limping British trains have served these days as a pressing reminder to Sunak, famous for his lightning raids by helicopter.

Truss's revenge

Just a year ago, Liz Truss officially took the reins of the Conservative Party in Birmingham. The 45-day premier began its plummet with its tax cut and controversial mini-budget that shook the markets and caused the pound to collapse.. Despite having fallen disgracefully before the British, who consider her the worst 'premier' in history, Truss continues to have the support of the hard wing of the party for her neoliberal creed, as well as the support of defenestrated ministers such as Priti Patel or Jacob Rees-Mogg, who will support her today in Manchester at the so-called Great British Growth Rally.

The aspiring ministers

Sunak will also have to face direct competition in Manchester from two hard-line ministers, Suella Braveman and Kemi Badenoch, who are calling for a move to the right.. The controversial Secretary of the Interior went ahead with her speech in Washington, calling uncontrolled immigration the “existential threat to the West” and certifying “the failure of multiculturalism”. The Secretary of International Trade, also the daughter of immigrants, has stood out for stirring up the cultural war against the woke (progressive) ideology.. Braverman and Badenoch already competed in the Tory leadership contest after the fall of Boris Johnson and are willing to try again with the support of the grassroots.

The red wall

The Tory deputies recruited by Boris Johnson in 2019 in industrial England have made common cause in the Northern Research Group (NRG) and remember the commitment made and so many times postponed to end the south-north economic imbalance (here the geography is inverted by the pull of London). The red wall vote will once again be vital in the 2019 elections, and the discontent is more than palpable, with the defection of star candidates like Dehenna Davison in recent months or the threat of even forming a new party.

The moderate Tories

Sunak promised to reunify the party, and yet he has also biased against him moderate groups such as One Nation, which have only one reference in his Government (Security Secretary Tom Tugendhta). The premier has also biased against him the hundreds of deputies attached to the Conservative Environmental Network (CEN) for their “climate apathy” for the “reversal” in environmental policies.