DAN HODGES: Rishi has vowed to act tough to end winter of discontent

DAN HODGES: Rishi has vowed to act tough to end the winter of discontent… but does anyone really believe him?

For a brief, breathless moment it looked as if Rishi Sunak was finally going to make a move. According to media reports, legislation banning strikes among ‘blue-light services’ had been drawn up for introduction to the Commons at the start of January. Industrial action by ambulance workers and firefighters would be proscribed. 

But then Downing Street sprang into action. Or inaction.

‘We don’t recognise this story,’ a No 10 official told me firmly. ‘It hasn’t come from us.’

Were there any plans to announce any legislation aimed at preventing Britain grinding to a halt over Christmas, I asked. ‘We have no plans for anything like that at the moment,’ was the clear, if slightly brusque, response.

Rishi Sunak, pictured, has been in office just under seven weeks. A relatively brief spell by historic standards, but a lifetime in Liz Truss years. And over that period he’s been doing a lot of ‘considering’

Sunak has been in office just under seven weeks. A relatively brief spell by historic standards, but a lifetime in Liz Truss years. And over that period he’s been doing a lot of ‘considering’.

Last Wednesday, he announced he was considering introducing tough new legislation to prevent a winter of discontent. The week before, he revealed he was considering giving the police tough new powers to crack down on environmental protesters who keep bringing Britain’s streets and motorways to a standstill. 

A few days earlier there had been a briefing he was considering giving UK Border Force tough new powers to confront the people-traffickers. Curbs on the number of foreign students. A permanent bank holiday to commemorate the Queen. A registration scheme for short-term holiday lets. Arms to Taiwan. These are just some things that are currently ‘under active consideration’ by Mr Sunak.

Sunak considered introducing a permanent bank holiday to commemorate the Queen. BUT there’s a problem. All he ever seems to do is ponder such issues

BUT there’s a problem. All he ever seems to do is ponder such issues. Then ponder them some more. Then move on to pondering about something else.

‘I’m not really surprised,’ one former Minister told me. ‘He hasn’t really got any clear idea why he wants to be Prime Minister. He likes standing on the bridge admiring the view. But he doesn’t want to seize the wheel, or take charge of the ship.’

An ally of Truss agrees, saying: ‘He’s just very risk-averse and indecisive. When Liz resigned, he told her, “You can’t leave today. I’m not ready. Can you wait 24 hours so I don’t need to do PMQs? I need more time to prepare.” ’

There may be other explanations for Sunak’s studious lethargy.

It could be that he believes the mere threat of legislative intervention could prove enough to make the militant unions, hardened eco-protesters and ruthless peddlers in human misery come to their senses. In which case the Prime Minister is about to get a rude awakening.

Figures published last Tuesday revealed the number of migrants detected entering the UK in small boats in the first week of December was 1,902. The week before, it was 32.

On the same day – less than a week after Sunak had told a meeting of senior police chiefs they should use ‘the full force of the law’ against Just Stop Oil activists – four van-loads of Metropolitan Police officers walked impotently alongside a group of 20 protesters as they ‘slow-marched’ through South London. The only person confronted by the police was a lorry driver who sounded his horn in frustration. ‘They’ve got a right to protest,’ an officer explained to irate motorists.

In his desire to portray himself as the Project Manager of Britain, Rishi Sunak is in danger of turning into the nation’s David Brent, the self-promoting but self-delusional boss in TV’s The Office

An alternative explanation is that Sunak is only too aware there is little he can do in practice to defeat the strikers, supergluers and smugglers, and that all his tough talk is simply empty rhetoric designed to pull the wool over the eyes of a gullible electorate. If that is the case, then he’s pursuing a strategy that is staggeringly short-termist.

Sir Keir Starmer has already begun calling his bluff. ‘He should stop grandstanding, stop sitting on his hands, get round the table and resolve these issues,’ the Labour leader taunted at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Meanwhile, Tory backbenchers are starting to echo the criticism. ‘He’s just a middle-manager,’ one Tory veteran responded with a shrug when I queried Sunak’s inability to align his words with deeds.

Downing Street officials have to realise they cannot spin their way through the impending crisis. Out in the real world, real trains are about to stop running. Hospital operations are going to be cancelled. Families’ Christmas presents will sit in sorting offices undelivered. So if the Prime Minister hasn’t got anything concrete to say about how he’s going to prevent this wretched disruption, he’d be much better off not saying anything at all.

Sir Keir Starmer has already begun calling Sunak’s bluff. ‘He should stop grandstanding, stop sitting on his hands, get round the table and resolve these issues,’ the Labour leader taunted at Prime Minister’s Questions

Or perhaps there’s a third explanation. Maybe Rishi Sunak really does think he can finesse away the nation’s industrial strife, and border chaos, and environmental anarchy.

What seems to get his juices pumping is organising a major summit, or establishing a task force, or appointing a tsar. Not slamming his hand on the Cabinet table, staring the truculent railworkers’ leader Mick Lynch in the eye, and warning him: ‘Get your members back to work or you’ll end up in the dock of the Old Bailey!’

Of course, there is a time for calm, unfussy statesmanship. Especially after the chaos and psychodramas of the past political year.

But in his desire to portray himself as the Project Manager of Britain, Rishi Sunak is in danger of turning into the nation’s David Brent, the self-promoting but self-delusional boss in TV’s The Office.

People are starting to detect a whiff of bull manure wafting out of No 10. They are noticing there is no practical connection between what is said and done, and what is happening in their daily lives.

People are starting to detect a whiff of bull manure wafting out of No 10. They are noticing there is no practical connection between what is said and done, and what is happening in their daily lives

It would be unreasonable to expect Sunak to have already got to grips with all of the nation’s ills. But it’s not asking too much to expect him to try to grip something. Anything.

The PM’s economic policy is essentially Jeremy Hunt’s. His policy on Ukraine was inherited from Boris Johnson. Levelling Up is being driven by Michael Gove. The NHS strategy is being driven by the long tail of Covid.

So what exactly is Britain’s Project Manager actually managing? His allies insist he has been keeping a watching brief during his first few weeks in power, and that the New Year will see him deliver a major speech in which he’ll set out his philosophy and political vision.

But his critics believe this represents an admission Sunak is already struggling. ‘He’s not making any headway,’ one Labour strategist told me. ‘I expect we’ll see them trying to do a relaunch soon.’

Maybe. But that implies someone has attempted to launch something in the first place.

Whereas to date, the Sunak Government has remained firmly rooted to the spot.

Things could change. Perhaps the union barons, green activists and people-traffickers have miscalculated, and pushed Sunak too far. There is a possibility that he could burst forward with a tranche of radical new legislation to break the strikes, clear the streets and secure Britain’s borders.

Or perhaps not. 

The Prime Minister promises he’ll get tough. Again. But for now, I’m not sure anyone in Britain believes him.

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