Rishi Sunak is no threat to Boris

Rishi Sunak made his summer statement this afternoon. The chancellor is never less than immaculately turned out. Skinny blue suit, coiffed hair, silver-grey tie gathered in a discreet knot, a white shirt that glowed like a snow-capped peak at noon. And he oozed board-room competence. One half expected the lights in the Commons to fall and a screen to be unrolled for a Powerpoint presentation. He draws his rhetoric from many sources. In today’s speech we got a hint of Thatcher:

‘I believe in the nobility of work. I believe in the inspiring power of opportunity.’

We heard a reminder of Blair: 

‘I am not dogmatic. I believe in what works.’

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There was a faint echo of Churchill: 

‘Hardship lies ahead but no one will be left without hope.’

And we got a clear rebuke to a former Tory chancellor, Norman Lamont, who described unemployment as ‘a price well worth paying’ for economic recovery.