Can Rishi Sunak unite his warring party? Five big challenges for the new PM

Published

3 years ago

October 25, 2022

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Will it be the third time lucky this year for the Tories as they embark on their next prime minister?

Rishi Sunak told his colleagues yesterday – painfully aware that their opinion poll ratings are on the floor, if not crashing through the basement – that they must “unite or die”.

Here are five key challenges he faces.

Challenge one: a unity cabinet

Mr Sunak said he would create a cabinet of all the talents, a phrase that is often used but too often falls victim to prime ministers wanting to reward their loyalists.

We’ll see in the coming hours how many of Liz Truss and Boris Johnson‘s supporters make it into the cabinet, with Jeremy Hunt widely expected to stay as chancellor.

One key appointment to watch will be whether Ben Wallace, who clashed with Mr Sunak over defence spending last year and backed Ms Truss because she offered a multibillion-pound increase, will remain in post.

Right-wingers such as Suella Braverman, who threw her backing behind Mr Sunak, will expect jobs but also hold him to promises such as the scheme to send some migrants to Rwanda.

A cabinet that is a broad church means conflict behind closed doors, which can burst into the open – see Theresa May’s time in office. But the Tories want to see all strands of opinion brought in behind Mr Sunak.

Challenge two: balance the books

The fiscal plan to balance the books is still in the diary for next Monday and the Halloween statement is set to be full of horrors. How it lands is a crucial test, especially as the Bank of England makes its decision on interest rates later that week.

A £40bn black hole can only be plugged by spending cuts or tax rises and a mixture of both is expected.

What will be protected? Mr Johnson’s spending review last year promised what was described as a record funding settlement for the NHS – of around 3.8% a year. Inflation, running at 10%, would wipe that away when waiting lists have hit seven million.

Challenge three: the austerity PM

Among the difficult decisions to be made in the coming days is whether pensions and benefits will rise with inflation, or those reliant on them will see a real-terms cut.

Raising benefits by the level of average earnings rather than inflation would save a few billion pounds. But it could destroy a reputation Mr Sunak has traded on since he launched the furlough scheme in March 2020 as someone who protects the most vulnerable.

There could be a heightened risk for Mr Sunak, who is married to a billionaire, of showing he understands the struggles of those on the lowest incomes.

Also coming down the track, and a key consideration when it comes to cuts to departmental budgets, is a wave of strike ballots over public sector pay. Telling nurses and teachers they cannot have a pay rise because the country can’t afford it could be a tougher sell for a prime minister with a gilded lifestyle.

Challenge four: Johnson and internal enemies

What about our former prime minister, who blames Mr Sunak for his downfall?

He tweeted his congratulations to Mr Sunak on Tuesday afternoon and said “this is the moment for every Conservative to give our new PM their full and wholehearted support.

But Mr Johnson, who returned from the Dominican Republic to mount his own leadership campaign, which he claims could have succeeded, threatens to be an alternative power base in the party and perhaps to criticise from the sidelines if parts of his 2019 agenda are dropped.

Mr Sunak inherits an almost 80-seat majority, but all his economic measures will require difficult votes in parliament.

The publicly declared supporters of Mr Johnson and Penny Mordaunt, the Commons leader who also ran in the leadership contest – and not those they claimed to have, make up more than 90 MPs. There is a sizeable pool of unreconciled MPs who could make governing difficult.

Challenge five: is an election on the cards?

As well as having to get the economy back on track, and being Britain’s face on the world stage in dangerous times – something Mr Sunak has limited experience of, given his meteoric rise since he was elected seven years ago – he is relatively untested as a campaigner.

His constituency of Richmond in North Yorkshire is a safe seat and he inherits a Conservative Party seriously damaged by the past few months.

He hopes for another two years before an election and has no obligation to hold one.

But with even some Tory MPs calling for one, and more ominously, Conservative-supporting newspapers pointing out that he walks into Downing Street without a single vote being cast, he may – if it’s a rocky road ahead – struggle with an increasingly loud drumbeat to get a mandate from the public.

World

Nine of Gazan doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis

Published

15 hours ago

May 24, 2025

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Nine of Gazan doctor's 10 children killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis

Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.

Warning: This article contains details of child deaths

Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.

Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.

Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.

In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.

The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.

“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.

“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”

British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack

Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.

Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.

The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.

Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.

‘No political or military connections’

Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.

“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”

He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”

Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.

Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.

World

UN’s Antonio Guterres condemns ‘teaspoon’ of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes

Published

1 day ago

May 24, 2025

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UN's Antonio Guterres condemns 'teaspoon' of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes

The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.

He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.

Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.

The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.

Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.

Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.

Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.

The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.

The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.

The leaders of the UK, France and Canada are “on the wrong side of humanity and (…) history”, he said, after they threatened “concrete action” against Israel this week if it continues its “egregious” military operations in Gaza.

Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.

But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.

Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.

The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

World

’12 people’ injured in stabbing at Hamburg train station – as woman arrested

Published

1 day ago

May 23, 2025

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'12 people' injured in stabbing at Hamburg train station - as woman arrested

A woman has been arrested after 12 people were reportedly injured in a stabbing at Hamburg’s central train station in Germany.

An attacker armed with a knife targeted people on the platform between tracks 13 and 14, according to police.

They added that the suspect was a 39-year-old woman.

Officers said they “believe she acted alone” and investigations into the stabbing are continuing.

There was no immediate information on a possible motive.

The fire service said six of the injured were in a life-threatening condition, three others were seriously hurt, and another three sustained minor injuries, news agency dpa reported.

The attack happened shortly after 6pm local time (5pm UK time) on Friday in front of a waiting train, regional public broadcaster NDR reported.

A high-speed ICE train with its doors open could be seen at the platform after the incident.

Railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by what had happened.