New UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has returned from the political wilderness. Photo / AP
Former UK Prime Minister David Cameron has returned to Parliament seven years after resigning in a desperate attempt by current PM Rishi Sunak to steady the ship.
The source of the most recent chaos is UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who was sacked after making a series of incendiary comments about the homeless, asylum seekers and the Israel-Hamas war.
UK correspondent Gavin Grey tells The Front Page podcast Braverman’s rebellion has had a massive impact on the Conservative Party.
“It certainly has shaken the establishment,” Grey says.
“Over the last month or so, she has been poking her head about the parapet and was beginning to say things that weren’t quite government policy. And one was beginning to wonder whether she’d actually cleared these comments with her bosses in Downing Street and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.”
Grey says it’s quite evident that the most recent comments, at the very least, had not been cleared at all.
“About a week ago, she talked about how being homeless and living under a tent on the streets was almost a lifestyle choice,” Grey says.
“That was a very poor turn of phrase, and homeless charities got upset. I think what she meant to say was that sometimes people who are offered assistance to get off the streets are refusing that assistance.”
Grey says there are a multitude of reasons why someone might feel the need to reject that assistance, many of which are more complex than simple lifestyle choices.
“She also effectively accused the police in London of being biased during marches in support of Palestine,” Grey says.
“There have been three weeks of marches now, and the most recent one saw 300,000 people take to the streets on Saturday. She said the police tend to be rather soft on them, whereas [participants in] right-wing marches are treated [in a] very heavy-handed [manner] by the police.
“The Home Secretary doesn’t govern the police, but for her to start accusing the police of taking sides, to criticise them openly, was really rather shocking.”
Despite this, Sunak did not immediately sack her.
“But then, we learned that those comments and an article she wrote for the Times had not been cleared by Downing Street in the form which she sent them. She had refused to make the amendments requested by Rishi Sunak’s team and published anyway. After that, calls for her resignation grew louder and louder until the reshuffle on Monday.”
Once Braverman was sacked, she did not go quietly, writing a scathing letter that criticised Sunak’s Government and outlined a long string of problems with his tenure in charge.
“She said that Rishis Sunak has repeatedly failed on key policies and broken pledges over immigration. She accused him of having no real intention of keeping his promises. And it goes on and on.”
The sacking of Braverman has led to the unlikely return of Cameron from the political wilderness he had been subjected to after deciding to push ahead with the Brexit referendum in 2016.
“Political analysts who had been watching British politics for years were completely dumbfounded by this. Indeed, some thought it was just a vicious rumour and it couldn’t possibly be true.”
Sunak had actually gone as far as criticising Cameron for playing a part in 30 years of political leadership that had achieved very little.
On top of all this, Sunak is also facing a slew of criticism off the back of an inquiry into the UK’s Covid response. During that period, he came up with a scheme called “Eat out, help out” which encouraged people to visit restaurants. While the campaign did help restaurants stay afloat, it also contributed to the spread of Covid-19, leading to Sunak being dubbed “Dr Death” behind the scenes.
So, will Cameron be able to steady the ship, or does Sunak, the so-called Dr Death, face too many challenges to hang on to power?
Listen to the full episode of The Front Page to get a full rundown of the drama unfolding in the UK.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. It is presented by Damien Venuto, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in business reporting who joined the Herald in 2017.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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