Assuming Sunak does miss next week, there remains one thing he could do for both his country and himself. He could publicly renounce his attacks on Truss, recognize her as the elected leader of his party and immediately offer to serve under her. Given their disagreement over economic policy, he may ask to go “offshore” to the Foreign Office in return for a public declaration of loyalty. On almost every front, Britain currently needs thoughtful and unifying leadership. All Truss has done is very low expectations. He will inherit from Johnson one of the lightest, infinite cabinets of the modern era. Previous Tory leaders from Thatcher to Major, Cameron and May treated the cabinet as a corporate body, not a personal tribunal, embracing critics as well as loyalists. For Johnson, the cabinet was a fan club. Reports say Truss sees it in much the same terms. Watchers of Sunak’s campaign saw him consistently outperform Truss in the debates. He made mistakes, mainly in looking too aggressive, perhaps understandably so in the circumstances. But his language was at least statesmanlike: stressing the need for financial responsibility and avoiding Truss’ barrage of unlikely political clichés. His only intellectual equal in the recent cabinet was Michael Gove, who, like him, despaired of Johnson’s behaviour. Of those left, only three deserve serious ministerial office: perhaps Greg Clarke, George Justice and Sajid Javid. Over the past three decades, Tory party politics has turned into a battlefield littered with leadership corpses. From The Major to The Hague, Cameron, Osborne and now Johnson have all given up on their memoirs before they’re even 60. Johnson mercilessly beheaded a whole generation of his party’s young talent, including Amber Rudd, Nicky Morgan, Damian Green, Dominic Grieve, Jeremy Hunt, Rory Stewart, Jesse Norman and David Gauke. This is the cabinet this country needs right now. Britain’s current state of emergency is the result of three policies pursued by Tory governments: Brexit, the pandemic lockdown and sanctions against Russia – the latter, admittedly, a NATO obligation. Recovery from each will require intelligence and courage of a high order. So far, Truss has shown little sign of either. She has shown the frivolity of a student politician and won at best the half-hearted enthusiasm of her own party. This party is behind Labor in the polls, lacking any wider popular support. He needs all the help he can get. Very immediately, he must address Sunak. If he can act with grace and dignity, if he can rise above the fray and play his cards right, he will benefit his party and his country – and in the long run certainly himself.
