{"id":1041,"date":"2023-09-02T16:10:32","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T16:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/will-rishi-sunak-prove-to-be-more-than-a-good-loser\/"},"modified":"2023-09-02T16:10:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T16:10:32","slug":"will-rishi-sunak-prove-to-be-more-than-a-good-loser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/will-rishi-sunak-prove-to-be-more-than-a-good-loser\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Rishi Sunak prove to be more than a good loser?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will Rishi Sunak prove to be more than a good loser?<\/p>\n

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By Laura Kuenssberg<\/div>\n
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Exactly 12 months ago, Rishi Sunak was preparing to be a good loser. <\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Even though he’d been thumped by Liz Truss over the summer in the Conservative Party leadership contest, the day before the result was confirmed, he was in our studio still calmly trying to make his case. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It was her almost immediate implosion that rapidly gave him the chance to move into No 10. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Sunak achieved his first task, to bring calm after a few crazy weeks. But after nearly a year in his second job, to restore the Tory party’s standing with the public, is miles out of reach. One survey this week even recorded his worst-ever personal ratings. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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So as the new political season starts, I’ve been asking ministers and senior Conservatives what the chances are that the prime minister can avoid being more than a good loser when it comes to the general election next year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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  • Chris Mason: Sunak does a reshuffle rejig in the big house<\/li>\n
  • Sunak’s communications chief leaves No 10 <\/li>\n
  • Shapps gets defence job in mini reshuffle<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    Those lucky enough to have got their posteriors on the leather seats of ministerial cars all know the situation is bad. “The numbers don’t lie,” a senior minister tells me. Another cabinet minister says “there is no point pretending we are not under pressure and it is going to get worse”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    Another member of the government suggests the chances of turning the situation round are miniscule: “The path was always narrow, now it is looking vanishingly narrow.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    But politics and the public mood can shift with extraordinary speed. Another member of the cabinet reckons it is just far too early to call time and they “have not given up all hope”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    Another minister believes that while voters are cross with them “they want us to be seen to be on their side”, with plenty of minds to be made up. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    But the Conservatives have been in the doldrums for a long time. Ministers know they are soaking up a sense that many of the public are profoundly fed up. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    One of the cabinet ministers I spoke to admits: “The public is bored with us and frustrated that things have been announced that haven’t been delivered.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    The sight of queues at airports, more rail and doctors’ strikes, and this week children not being able to go back to school because of the risk of buildings collapsing all contribute to a tangible sense among many voters that lots about our country just does not really work. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    As schools and parents scramble to work out what is going on, a Labour source jokes “if we were to design a ‘the Tories are rubbish’ story we couldn’t do it this well”. And the backdrop to all of this is that inflation has made it harder and harder for millions to make ends meet. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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