Six of the worst reactions to Sunak as PM

The chorus of execration that met the appointment of Rishi Sunak as PM has been music to Steerpike’s ears. There are few things more delicious than the right-on indulging in yet another collective meltdown at the sheer audacity of a non-white politician who doesn’t conform to their views. After years of tedious games about identity politics, it is somewhat enjoyable to see some of our more hard-of-thinking commentators be bamboozled by their own logic. Below is a round-up of six of the best reactions to the appointment of Britain’s first Asian premier…

Nadia Whittome

Early out of the gates was Nadia Whittome, the 26-year-old vegan socialist Labour MP who sits for Nottingham East. In a now-deleted tweet, Whittome sneered that Sunak’s success should not be seen as ‘a win for Asian representation’ – despite his appointment being hailed across the globe as an historic first for a major post-imperial power. Whittome added that Sunak is ‘not on your side’, before a panicky Labour HQ forced her to take the post down. Talk about the mask slipping.

Devi Sridhar

We now go to north of the border where Professor Devi Sridhar – sometime Covid expert and full-time Sturgeon cheerleader – greeted the news with her usual impartial judgement. Sridhar took to Twitter (where else?) to lambast his handling of the pandemic, suggesting his wealth made him indifferent to the virus being let rip. 

‘If you’re in a bubble of extreme wealth (£730 million),’ she wrote, ‘it’s hard to relate to challenges of daily life including access to healthcare. He knows his loved ones and him would always have access to best medical care. What about rest of population dependent on NHS/public services?’

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Ross Clark

Britain is living beyond its means

Mr S will simply point to the Times newspaper’s write-up of the comments, which noted that Sturgeon’s government claimed it never followed a ‘herd immunity’ strategy despite emails from her scientists promoting the action for weeks. As for Sridhar, the paper drily remarks that she ‘has been a harsh critic of the UK government’s Covid strategy, but more forgiving of similar shortcomings in Sturgeon’s government.’ Ouch.

Alastair Campbell

Within hours of Sunak taking office, Campbell was at it again. Having spent years decrying David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, Liz Truss assembled what he called ‘the most right-wing government in our history’ – and Sunak’s new team is apparently no better. ‘A very right-wing government’ was Campbell’s considered opinion on Sunak’s new team after, er, a mere five hours in post. Dreadful how all these Conservative administrations keep being made up of Tories. Clearly things only worsened overnight: ‘the honeymoon’s over’ was the verdict in the New European tomorrow.

Gosh, how bad will things get by tomorrow?

Zarah Sultana

Coventry’s answer to Citizen Smith was straight out of the blocks to condemn Sunak’s coronation, releasing a video with Double Down News in which she makes the eyebrow-raising claim that ‘Rishi Sunak and his family belong to a very exclusive club who think the rules don’t apply to them, including tax rules, benefiting from a non-dom status that you can’t use.’ That’s quite a bold claim, given there have been no reports that Sunak broke any tax rules, in contrast to her implication. At least Sunak has the money for decent lawyers, should he choose to settle this another way…

Layla Moran

It wouldn’t be a clown show without the Lib Dems getting involved. And who embodies the party’s maverick motor-mouth tradition better than Layla Moran, an MP whose charisma is so limited that she lost to Ed Davey in a leadership election? Moran took to Twitter to mock how ‘this was mean to be the cabinet of many talents. I’d settle for a cabinet of any talent.’ Inevitably, such sneering was accompanied by a correction, with Moran adding that she should have written ‘meant’ rather than ‘mean.’

If only Sunak could pick from Davey’s embarrassment of riches, eh?

Joe Biden

Get it together man. And correct your press secretary too.