‘Things can only get wetter’ - Why ‘Soggy Sunak’ launched the election now, and how we got to this sorry, sodden point.

When Rishi Sunak announced that the general election would take place on July 4, it was amid a flurry of wild and unbelievable stories all within the same political ecosystem that to do something equally as unbelievable - and some say unexpected - almost made sense in a way. 

It began with a trip to Vienna.

Sunak was there at the beginning of this week to try and impress Britons and give those us back home (who are still bothering to follow Sunak’s activities) an insight into how the government is apparently tackling the matter of illegal migration. 

Desperate to find an ally that agrees, and keen to show Britons that there are other European nations looking at the government’s Rwanda plan with interest, Sunak found Austria - specifically, Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who suggested that ‘pioneering’ plans like the Rwanda scheme may provide the solution to Europe’s border crisis. 

Will the support from Austria’s chancellor provide Sunak with a much needed boost, or be perceived as as political win for Sunak closer to home? No. At least not really. The polls remain as in tact as they always have. 

It’s a distinction I highlighted in my previous piece: 

More than anything, however, you would have been hard-pressed to notice that he went on the trip at all. Sunak did little to celebrate the visit, and the only two media outlets he corralled into joining him in Vienna were GB News and the Daily Mail.

These were some of the first signs that something ‘different’ was happening. The limited (and some would say dying) appeal of the channel, along with the clear hope that Sunak’s message would only reach a certain demographic of voters who watch it, indicated that Sunak was taking his first tentative steps towards retreating back to the bunker

Somewhere above Eastern Europe, on the other hand, an unelected foreign secretary was flying to Albania.