We were only trying to help, Prime Minister
Why Rishi Sunak should be grateful that the media is scrutinising his weakness as a politician
One of the things that you’ll notice about Rishi Sunak is that when he is faced with a barrage of criticism - whether it’s the media, politicians, or otherwise - he’ll often become very tetchy and aloof.
It was a characteristic trait that he displayed throughout his time as ‘The Chancellor’, was on full, mansplaining display in his role as ‘The Contender’, and it has been inherited by his new character ‘The Prime Minister’.
On Monday, after Sunak pressed the panic button and sacked Nadhim Zahawi, he wanted to be seen as ‘getting on with the job’ - in this instance, by discussing his grand plans of giving back a meagre amount of what his government has taken away from the NHS over the last 13 years.
The problem was, however, that the press - in the form of Sky’s Beth Rigby and ITV’s Robert Peston - wouldn’t let him, and the Prime Minister was rather cross that it would not.
As Sunak has started to take his show on the road as part of his PR-based ‘PM Connect’ strategy, surrounded by health professionals and dignitaries, you could almost be forgiven for sympathising with his intention to ‘move on’ only to be stifled by the grubby press towards the end over the matter of ‘integrity and accountability.’
Specifically - relating to his handling of the Zahawi affair which served as a primary catalyst for the line of questioning [on ‘Sleaze’] at a particularly noisy Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday.
Sunak, however, fails to understand the importance of scrutinising politicians - he has never understood that for him, it is a necessary evil in this world where the only thing more frightening than having corrupt leaders is not knowing they're corrupt.