If knowing how to count is the most important thing in politics, Rishi Sunak should be the master. Yet the Prime Minister is discovering that there is more to making Westminster work. Emotional intelligence is the missing ingredient in the Sunak mix and it is coming to dominate everything, as both voters and MPs ask whether the Prime Minister really gets it . And they’re asking the same of Keir Starmer too. Both men are fact fans. They look for numbers and examples to back up their political arguments and deploy them in every situation from the Commons to the constituency. Yet when people are asked to name a great leader they often choose someone like Tony Blair,
Boris Johnson, Margaret Thatcher or Winston Churchill, who were defined by their ability to connect, even if some didn’t like what they saw. The problem for Rishi Sunak is that his own MPs still don’t really know who he is and last week they gave up trying to find out. They have grown tired of hoping that he might prove he’s just like them, putting him in dangerous territory as the local
elections loom in May and talk of a rival to replace him takes hold in the tea room. If last week was the week his MPs realised nobody is coming to save the Tory party, this week is about saving themselves. Lee Anderson is a good illustration of how Sunak got here. The PM’s advisers warned that removing the whip from Anderson after his comments about
London Mayor
Sadiq Khan would force the party’s former deputy chair to put his money – or Reform’s – where his mouth is. They saw an emotional reaction coming and knew, in return for an apology, Anderson needed to see a route to return to the Tory fold. Yet Sunak chose to take away the ladder Anderson could have used to climb down, prompting a defection and the promise of more to come. Anyone who went along to watch the new Reform MP unveiled by Richard Tice could see this was not something Anderson really wanted to be doing. Prime Minister’s Questions is another good example. Every week Sunak stands to face down the inevitable barrage from the Opposition benches, turns over the page of his Prime Ministerial ring binder and carefully selects the facts to suit the moment. A question about
immigration and when a local hotel may be available for weddings again is answered with a finger scroll down a heavily highlighted page, a fact about the amount of money put into the local area chosen and deployed in ready answer. The problem is the question isn’t really about how much has been spent or how many people have been moved (often to be rehoused in the same hotel by the council days later), it is an MP desperately seeking reassurance for himself and his constituents that the Prime Minister gets it. They want to see him feel. It is very hard to do this when your answer to the big problems is to determine the facts and then repeat them over and over in the hope it makes people understand. Read Next The Tories are paying the price for Rishi the
Robot Because it doesn’t really work on its own. People want someone to take the facts, interpret them and use them to inform policy which is translated into action and emotion. As every charity, business and campaign group knows; this is a much surer way to get us to buy into what you’re selling. Facts don’t drive people forward in battle when heavy losses have been suffered. Generals don’t hand out information about the number of bullets spent, or the cost of tanks bought and expect their battalions to charge at the enemy. This is what Sunak is expecting his party to do and it is why they gave up on him this week, because they have finally realised he isn’t capable of giving them what they need. So now the only question left for MPs is whether to jump ship, try to replace the captain or go down with it. Step forward Royal Naval Reservist Penny Mordaunt – touted by some as the next leader of the party and by others as a stalking horse. Whether she is the answer to Tory troubles or not is irrelevant right now; the fact that the question is being asked tells us all we need to know. Many MPs have known for a long time that their constituents have stopped listening, they know there is nothing they can do to hold back the defeat that’s coming and now their focus has shifted to saving themselves, not the party. Some recognise that’s the cycle of politics, others feel Sunak has wasted an opportunity. But they also know that trying to hold this show together until November is a near impossible task. They feel it in the pits of their stomachs. No matter what they say on the radio or TV they know what is coming because they understand that politics is a living breathing thing; it is as much about emotion as it is about counting votes. Kate McCann is political editor of Times Radio