Rishi Sunak takes a day off after a less-than-successful start to the election campaign
Party leaders don’t tend to take too many days off during General Election campaigns — especially not in the first week.
But according to The Guardian, Rishi Sunak is having a day at home, after what it’s calling a “hapless” start to the Conservative campaign.
Hapless? Well, in just three days the Prime Minister has managed to:
Get drenched in a Downing Street downpour while announcing the election date, as the anthem of Labour’s 1997 landslide victory blasted out of speakers nearby.
Take questions from two men in hi-vis vests who just happened to be Tory councillors.
Ask voters in Wales if they were excited for “all the football” — unlikely given Wales missed out on qualification for Euro 2024.
Turn up to a photo-opportunity in the Belfast shipyard where the Titanic was built, inviting the obvious comparisons.
All this as more than 70 Conservative MPs decide they’d rather abandon Westminster for good than stand in the election, which doesn’t absolutely scream confidence as the campaign begins.
If the intention is to give his rivals a head start, Sunak is doing a fantastic job. Otherwise, perhaps a day to think again might not be a bad idea.
Not that Labour is having it all their own way, with Jeremy Corbyn announcing he’ll stand as an independent candidate in Islington North, the constituency he’s represented for the last 41 years.
