Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle weakens his government

Rishi Sunak thinks David Cameron will be a round peg in a round hole in the Foreign Office. I think (as I have written elsewhere) that he is right. If foreign secretaries could be bought at Harrods, Mr Cameron is the model discerning customers would prefer. But the underlying problem, which provoked this reshuffle, is at the Home Office. This was a personal one, because Suella Braverman, though she did not breach government policy, had defied the wishes of the Prime Minister about what her article in the Times should say. It is also, which matters much more, a national and political problem, because anti-Semitism, Islamism, immigration policy and confidence in the police are all in contention. It is on Home Office issues that public fear and anxiety centre, and on which Conservative votes, especially among the less well-off, depend. Mr Sunak is lucky that Mrs Braverman’s loopy letter of denunciation damages her cause. But his reshuffle still has a lot to do to convince.

James Cleverly, the new Home Secretary, did not want the move. He is a well-liked man, but no one would claim he has a strong grasp of difficult issues, and the issues in his new post are as difficult they have ever been. In this contested territory, people want someone who is calm but tough-minded and who has already thought deeply about these subjects. Michael Gove, Oliver Dowden, Tom Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch are all current ministers who have done so. Mr Cleverly hasn’t. He will avoid the excitability of Suella Braverman, but at least she got excited about the right things. The Hamas-excusing marches, following hard upon the group’s atrocious massacres, send a grim message about our future as a tolerant multiracial country. I am afraid they have made me realise that the police are no longer acting without fear or favour.