Rishi Sunak's windfall tax U-turn was a big win for Labour, but they need more of the same if they are to oust the Tories – Ayesha Hazarika

British politics has hidden depths. Just when you think things can’t get worse, a new low is reached.
Keir Starmer's Labour did well to make the windfall tax a big issue and force Boris Johnson's government to act (Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images)Keir Starmer's Labour did well to make the windfall tax a big issue and force Boris Johnson's government to act (Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Keir Starmer's Labour did well to make the windfall tax a big issue and force Boris Johnson's government to act (Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Wednesday’s performance by the Prime Minister when, having presided over a law-breaking, vomit-splattered, frat house at Downing Street, he decided to attack the Labour leader as “Sir Beer Korma”, took us down to Davey Jones’s locker levels of embarrassment. I’ve written some shonky jokes in my time but that merits a judge-led inquiry.

The question of leadership is on many minds right now. Many Tory MPs will be mulling that this weekend as they meet constituents and local association members.

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Whether they have the guts to challenge Johnson, all eyes will be on who could succeed him. Rishi Sunak will be interesting after reluctantly splashing the cash again. He had had such a stinker of a time with a useless Spring Statement plus the non-dom scandal about his wife’s tax affairs, it’s no wonder he didn’t think about re-applying for his US green card.

But the mother of all U-turns on the windfall tax and welcome relief on energy bills may make people look at him again. While his polling numbers plummeted, paying people cold, hard cash does wonders for one’s popularity. His credentials with the business community also remain high.

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I spoke at a financial conference just as Sue Gray’s report came out, and we ran a vote on who they wanted as Prime Minister. Unsurprisingly, Sunak won hands down, streets ahead of Johnson, Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner.

If Sunak can sharpen up his political operation (not with Zoolander shots on Insta, he’s Chancellor, not an influencer), he could perhaps be a contender although it will be interesting to see how true-blue fiscal Conservatives feel about the expansion of the state under his watch.

I recently interviewed Michael Heseltine, no admirer of the current leadership, particularly on Brexit and their ‘levelling up’ failures, and he made the uncomfortable argument that the state cannot always intervene and delaying pain today would see pain tomorrow.

I disagree but many on the right will feel similarly, including many of the Cabinet Ministers on the airwaves last week saying a hard no. They clearly felt it to be deeply unconservative.

Sunak’s lumbering windfall tax U-turn also brings opportunities and challenges for Labour. No doubt it has done well to get this issue up in lights with MPs hammering it in every interview.

There was a disciplined, co-ordinated strategy and a barn-storming Commons speech by my old boss Ed Miliband spelled out the idea’s merits and linically demolished the government’s case against.

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The public may have clocked that Labour pushed for this, but now the Chancellor has delivered it, they will not be forever grateful to Labour. That’s not how politics works.

Rachel Reeves and her team have done an impressive job in marking Rishi Sunak’s every move and have boosted Labour’s poll ratings on the economy which is no mean feat after the Corbyn years, but Labour always has to work thrice as hard on fiscal credibility than the Tories.

It shows Labour can make the right calls on the economy when the government follows them. But they need more big-ticket ideas to show the public they have a plan, a vision, and that they are not just a scrappy opposition but a government-in-waiting.

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