Rishi Sunak’s week of howlers has exposed his big weakness

It is quite some achievement to launch an attack on Keir Starmer’s contortions over trans rights versus women’s rights and come off worse. Yet that is what has happened to Rishi Sunak this week thanks to an increasingly visible flaw in his make-up: Sunak simply lacks political nous. While he may have been a fluent public performer when serving as chancellor during the covid pandemic, it has become obvious that this was because he was in his comfort zone as a financial geek.

But exposed to the much wider demands that the post of Prime Minister entails, Sunak is all at sea. He cannot spot an ambush to save his life and is also too inexperienced to understand historical context. These limitations are leading more and more to him doing painfully gauche things that cause more seasoned Conservative performers to stare at political events through gaps in their fingers while contemplating a looming general election campaign.