Rishi Sunak’s conference speech to his party last October was eminently forgettable. But it contained one memorable – and moving – passage. It was the story he told of how, soon after his election, he was giving his relatives a tour of the House of Commons.
Pausing at the statue of Winston Churchill that gazes out across the Members’ Lobby, his grandfather picked up his phone and started to dial. A slightly flustered Sunak asked him what he was doing. His grandfather explained he was phoning the landlady he’d had when he had first arrived in the UK to tell her where he was standing.
‘I am proud to be the first British Asian Prime Minister,’ Sunak told his audience. ‘But I’m prouder that it’s just not a big deal.’
It was the section of the speech that drew the biggest round of applause. But there was one problem. The statement his landmark elevation to the highest office in the land held no broader significance wasn’t true.
Last week was dominated by the row over Tory donor Frank Hester’s racist comments about former Labour MP Diane Abbott
‘Rishi’s race is going to be an issue for us in the Election,’ one Minister told me. ‘Our private polling shows we lose about 2 percentage points because of it. No 10 don’t want to address it. But they’re going to have to.’
A senior Tory strategist agreed. ‘It’s a problem for him, especially in some of the Red Wall seats. There’s no avoiding it. Most people don’t care. But some do. And it’s going to have to be confronted.’
Rishi Sunak and his team don’t want to confront it. Last week was dominated by the row over Tory donor Frank Hester’s racist comments about former Labour MP Diane Abbott. It was the perfect opportunity for the country’s first non-white PM to step in, and from a position of authority, defuse the issue. But as the furore spiralled out of control, he was nowhere to be seen.
‘No 10 is terrified of the race issue,’ a Cabinet Minister told me. ‘They don’t want to touch it. They think it’s a lose-lose for them.’
One of the explanations for Sunak’s reticence was financial pragmatism. The Prime Minister recognised, and was appalled by, the racism of Hester’s remarks. But with the Election imminent, the £10 million in cold cash Hester had proffered – with millions more potentially on offer – couldn’t be ignored. ‘No party can just throw away £15 million to £20 million,’ one Minister conceded. ‘We literally wouldn’t have an Election campaign.’
But another reason was Sunak’s innate squeamishness at addressing issues of race. ‘It’s not something he’s comfortable talking about,’ one ally told me. ‘It was like with Theresa May. She was only the second female PM, but she hated talking about gender issues.
‘She felt it was playing identity politics. And she wanted to be judged on her merits. Rishi is the same.’
Whatever the rationale, Sunak’s attempt to hide from the racial firestorm engulfing his party backfired disastrously.
First of all, it created a leadership vacuum that others rapidly stepped in to fill. Most notable was the intervention of Kemi Badenoch, the Cabinet Minister responsible for equalities.
As No 10 were tying themselves up in knots trying to rationalise why Hester’s words weren’t prejudiced, she baldly tweeted: ‘Hester’s 2019 comments, as reported, were racist.’
Badenoch is seen as one of the frontrunners to replace Sunak. But her allies insist her reaction was based on more than political manoeuvring. ‘The comments genuinely upset her,’ one revealed. ‘She’s the only black woman MP in the Tory Party. Her view was, ‘Hester can’t be allowed to get away with this s***.’ It matters.’
A second issue was the way the row completely undermined the Prime Minister’s attempt to promote his new anti-extremism agenda. ‘It was insane,’ one Tory MP complained. ‘We were simultaneously trying to come up with a new definition for hate speech while trying to defend a guy who had said he’d like to see a black woman MP shot.’
But there was another reason Sunak’s failure to get out in front of the Hester frenzy was so damaging. It opened the door for his opponents to exploit the issue of race for their own advantage.
‘Labour’s own polling shows what our polling shows,’ a Minister explained to me.
‘They know some voters are still put off by an Asian PM. So they’re dog-whistling to it. ‘Rishi Sunak doesn’t get Britain’. We know what their strategy is.’
Sir Keir Starmer’s team angrily reject that claim. ‘There’s no way Keir would allow that,’ an aide insisted. ‘Anyone he thought was trying to leverage Sunak’s racial heritage would be out on their ear.’
But other Shadow Ministers concede it is something that is being raised on the doorsteps. ‘It comes up a fair bit,’ one admitted to me. ‘I’ve had it in my own constituency. And I’ve had to say to some of my own people, ‘Look, we’re not going there. Dial it down.’
‘Rishi Sunak’s race is going to be an issue for us in the Election,’ one Minister told me
The Diane Abbott row was the perfect opportunity for the country’s first non-white PM to step in, and from a position of authority, defuse the issue
The reality is that in the furnace of the Election campaign, the issue of Sunak’s race is likely to be dialled up. Immigration will be a central theme.
Reform – a party not averse to aggressive campaigning on race and migration – will be on the charge. George Galloway’s victory in Rochdale, the ongoing Gaza conflict, and the debate surrounding it, will make an increasingly rancid political climate even more toxic.
Sunak’s friends are confident he can navigate this minefield.
‘Rishi doesn’t like talking about when he’s experienced racism because he doesn’t think it accurately represents Britain now,’ one told me. ‘And he just doesn’t think it should define him. ‘When Barack Obama was elected, it was the major issue for a long time. Here it was, ‘Oh, that’s nice’. And then people just moved on.’
Maybe. And allegations of racism are tossed around now with such flippancy and expediency the word is starting to lose its meaning.
But Rishi Sunak needed to show leadership over the genuinely racist bile spewed by one of his party’s biggest donors. He failed.
And if Hester’s poison is allowed to spread unchecked throughout the body politic, then Britain’s first Asian Prime Minister will be one of the first to be contaminated by it.
