On Wednesday afternoon, May 22, 2024, Rishi Sunak made a horrendous PR error.

Before we get to that, just hours before at PMQs, the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn MP asked Rishi about rumours of an upcoming election. Rishi replied, using the words ‘spoiler alert’, that the election would be in the second half of this year.

During the afternoon debate on the planned Holocaust Memorial in Victoria Gardens near the Houses of Parliament, Conservative MPs spoke about the rumours. Some said, ‘This could well be my last debate’.

They had been checking their mobile phones for news. Just before 4:30 p.m., Guido Fawkes reported (red emphases below are his):

Broadcasters are reporting that July 4th is the date selected by Sunak for a snap election. Parliament would be dissolved on Friday and recess cancelled. Not long to go until 5 p.m…

The weather had been miserable on Tuesday and Wednesday. It rained most of the time, day and night.

A steady rain fell all day on Wednesday.

At around 5 p.m., Rishi stepped outside of Downing Street to deliver his election announcement in the rain (go halfway through the video to watch his five-minute speech):

How wet, wet, wet would Rishi get?

When he started, viewers could see a few raindrops penetrating the shoulders of his suit jacket. By the time he finished, rivulets of water ran all the way down it. That said, his hair remained untouched, proof that he must use pomade.

To make matters worse, someone — said to be Steve Bray, the noisy arch-Remainer hanging around the Palace of Westminster’s grounds — was playing the hit single from Tony Blair’s 1997 campaign, D:Ream’s Things Can Only Get Better, from a boombox. Oddly, the police, who are there to preserve order, did nothing to silence the music. Rishi had to endure it as he spoke.

Guido said:

July 4th is confirmed – he says: “Now is the moment for Britain to choose its future“. “Things can only get better” has started playing. Sunak is getting wet…

And how.

Why did Rishi stand outside when he could have made the announcement from the multi-million pound conference room created when Boris Johnson was Prime Minister?

Rishi could have also announced the news from inside Downing Street.

What official — even an office secretary, for that matter — allowed him to go out into the rain?

The optics were terrible.

The Telegraph reported (purple emphases mine):

As election announcements go, it was not the most auspicious start. If the pathetic fallacy of a grey, wet Wednesday afternoon wasn’t enough to hammer the message home, the Prime Minister had to brave it without an umbrella as he stood outside No 10, the shoulders of his suit jacket absorbing the torrential rain. One colleague commented on the quality of his hair gel: while Sunak’s suit was soaked, his hair looked remarkably dry.

One can only hazard a guess at the reason the poor PM didn’t have a staff member next to him holding a brolly. Perhaps it was considered a savvy PR move to avoid fuelling Labour’s characterisations of Sunak as wealthy and out of touch – one of the many attempts to make him seem a little more like a man of the people. But it’s hard to imagine another country’s leader giving the speech of a lifetime while getting soaked to the bone. 

Indeed.

Afterwards, Guido updated us with a summary of the announcement. Rishi told us that he had already received assent from King Charles to dissolve Parliament, not mentioned below:

Sunak is heading to the palace now. The majority of his speech was accompanied by the blaring: “Things can only get better” as Sunak got positively drenched. So much for harsh anti-protest laws…

This is the situation with dates:

– Parliament prorogued on Friday 24 May
– Dissolution to take place on Thursday 30 May
– General Election on Thursday 4 July
– The new Parliament will be summoned on Tuesday 9 July
– State Opening on Wednesday 17 July.

It’s on…

Interesting. Only last week, Rishi appeared on ITV1’s lunchtime chat show Loose Women to say that:

hacks, MPs, staffers and the like were given the green light to book their summer holidays from Rishi Sunak. He said live on Loose Women, “book your holiday!“

Later that day, Guido presented the thin gruel that Rishi was promoting internally on behalf of the Conservatives:

The Tories have sent a note emailed to Tory MPs, candidates and campaign staff for the campaign. Motto: “CLEAR PLAN. BOLD ACTION. SECURE FUTURE” …

MPs and activists are expected to tell people that “Rishi Sunak is making progress” and that the “ship is steadier” than before, what with:

    • Inflation down from 11% to 2.3% and returned to the lowest level since 2021.
    • Economy growing and we have the joint fastest growth in the G7 in this quarter.
    • Rwanda Act passed, getting the planes ready.
    • Meaning we can cut NICs a double tax on work from 12% to 8%, saving the average worker £900 a year.

Tories are told to promise “a future where we are safe, secure, and prosperous” along with some vague platitudes like: “If you work hard and play by the rules, you will get ahead.” Inspirational…

Sunak’s achievements to boast are listed:

    • Furlough.
    • HS2 cancellation.
    • “Persisted” with Rwanda.
    • Banning smoking.
    • Moving to 2.5% defence spending.
    • Incentive-based welfare reforms.
    • Net Zero rollback.
    • Cutting National Insurance.

I call attention to the fourth bullet point in the second group of ‘achievements’: thankfully, the smoking ban was not included in the washup, which is what both MPs and the Lords call the final passage of selected bills before prorogation and dissolution of the parliamentary session.

According to Guido, the campaign launch later that day at the ExCel Centre near Canary Wharf in East London was sparsely attended:

Sunak has delivered the first speech of the campaign at a pretty small event in the ExCel centre over in the London Docklands …

The hot room was mostly populated by SpAds [special advisors, i.e. twenty- and thirtysomethings named Tarquin and Catriona] and staffers, along with most of the cabinet. Sunak’s message is: the fight isn’t over yet. “Let’s show Labour that the British people will never be taken for granted“. That’s as a Sky reporter is manhandled out. Sunak’s taking his message on a tour of the country tomorrow…

Oh, joy. We can hardly wait.

The Sky News reporter ejected from the tiny assembly was none other than ex-GB News’s Darren McCaffrey, who returned to his former employer. Guido tells us that, apparently, Sky News did not have the appropriate accreditation (video at the link):

Sky News‘ Darren McCaffrey has just been hauled out of Sunak’s first campaign speech in the London docklands. He’s left questioning why Sky doesn’t have accreditation as muscle men push him down a corridor. Disaster…

Well, it wasn’t as if Sky were going to cover Rishi or the Conservatives favourably anyway. McCaffrey should have stuck with GB News. No doubt they were allowed in.

Back to the bigger picture, however. How is it that Rishi decided to call the election now?

The Times gives us the story, ‘Inside the cabinet debate where election decision was made’. It was not a spur of the moment decision:

Rishi Sunak opened Cabinet on Wednesday afternoon by setting aside the formal agenda. “I don’t think anyone will mind,” he said as he told colleagues that he was calling a general election on July 4. The economic outlook, he said, was improving and it was time to be bold. “We have got to own the choice and frame the choice,” he said.

The prime minister’s decision to go early was not universally welcomed …

In fact, Sunak made the decision to call the election nearly a month ago, shortly before the local election results were announced. The original plan had been to hold off until the autumn, by which time people would feel better off as inflation fell and interest rates were cut.

It soon became apparent, however, that the economic recovery was slower than hoped, and that even then people were unwilling to give the Tories credit.

The prime minister became concerned that the longer he waited, the more he would be susceptible to accusations that he was “clinging on” …

The other issue that weighed on his mind was Rwanda. A source said that while they were hopeful that the first flight would take off before polling day, there was a risk that the policy might not show an immediate effect on small boat crossings. “If you got to the autumn and the number of illegal crossings had not gone down that would be a problem,” they said.

Sunak’s decision took the majority of his own ministers by surprise, even when the evidence was increasingly obvious. In the wake of Wednesday morning’s inflation figures the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, refused to rule out an early election.

Then ministers were told that attending cabinet at 4.15pm was compulsory. Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton had just arrived in Albania when he was called and told to return home. Never mind that the streets of Tirana had been festooned with Union Jacks to mark his visit. Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, delayed a trip to eastern Europe.

Downing Street attempted to throw off ministers with a faux agenda for the meeting.

However, at PMQs, the SNP’s Stephen Flynn asked about rumours of an early election. That got the Commons buzzing. Rishi replied that it would be in the second half of the year. Nonetheless, Conservative MPs checked their phones relentlessly that afternoon.

Bloomberg reports that even the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, was taken by surprise:

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to stake the Conservative Party’s future on a rare summer election was so secret that even his chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, appeared surprised by the plan …

Hunt had as recently as last week suggested he might again reduce payroll taxes in an autumn fiscal statement, something that will now be left to the next government …

Some Conservative MPs are deeply unhappy about a July 4 general election:

The lack of support of a summer vote raised questions about how motivated the party will be to contest Labour leader Keir Starmer’s bid to become prime minister. One sitting government minister, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the July 4 date was a terrible idea given the Conservatives have been polling 20 points behind the main opposition Labour Party. A second minister said the timing suggested Sunak had given up and didn’t want to be prime minister any longer.

For months, Sunak aides had declined to say when exactly the election would be held, frustrating bankbench Tory MPs who complained he was using the threat to keep them from joining efforts to replace him as leader. Conservative rebels had argued that the party was facing oblivion squeezed by Labour and the Liberal Democrats on the left and the Reform UK party founded by Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage on the right.

However, Nigel Farage has opted instead to help Donald Trump in his re-election campaign. Farage is no doubt keeping his powder dry for the election aftermath.

Conservative MPs also complained about the sopping wet optics of the outdoor announcement:

Anger within Tory ranks wasn’t just directed at the timing of the election: it was also leveled at Sunak’s mode of announcement, delivered while soaking in the rain outside Downing Street and almost drowned out by music from a protester. Several Tory politicians, including a cabinet minister, told Bloomberg privately that he should have had an umbrella or given his statement inside.

I totally agree. It looked as if Rishi were trying to sabotage the election for the Conservatives, who are in a very weak position as it is. It all started with Boris Johnson’s ouster in 2022.

Bloomberg concluded with two MPs’ perspectives:

One MP, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was a good move and they were happy. Another said it was either a master stroke of political genius or incredibly selfish. They weren’t sure which.

I vote for ‘incredibly selfish’. It’s as if Rishi is trying to kill off the party.

I reckon he and his family will move to California where he and his wife met. Green card, anyone?