Rishi Sunak has chosen to live in the grand palace of Tory delusion

He did his Fisher Price My First Statesman impression, but the public has already seen through him, whether they or he fully understand it yet

If you’ve not got the time or the interest to watch both speeches by Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak outside 10 Downing Street, then feel free to choose one or the other because they were both exactly the same.

Liz Truss wandered out, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history by an absolute mile and through absolutely no one’s fault but her own, and explained that she was “more convinced than ever” that she was right and everyone else was wrong.

That everything that had happened was everyone else’s fault, mainly Vladimir Putin’s. That the Roman philosopher Seneca agreed with her, apparently, even if no one else does.

And then Rishi Sunak did exactly the same. He did his Fisher Price My First Statesman impression. He tried to sound as stern as he possibly could, and then summoning up his vast reserves of courage, bravely said how “it is only right to explain why I am standing here as your prime minister”.

Which he did explain. “I am here,” he said, “because mistakes were made. And I have been elected as leader of my party, and your prime minister, in part, to fix them.”

One wonders quite what he imagined himself to be, in this moment. Does he imagine himself to be some kind of 21st-century Khrushchev, to be revered for all time for having the courage to acknowledge, out in the open, that Liz Truss may have got some things wrong? There is not a soul on earth who doesn’t understand that (apart from Liz Truss herself, of course).

But he is every bit either as delusional or as dishonest as her. Liz Truss is not Stalin, Brexit is, and he very clearly has every intention of continuing with the grand delusion.

He spoke of a “profound economic crisis” – upgraded from a “profound economic challenge” yesterday. There are, he said, “difficult decisions” to come. He knows that difficult decisions mean cuts to public spending.

But he is also, he said, going to “deliver on the 2019 manifesto”. That was the manifesto, you may remember, that promised an oven-ready Brexit deal that has since been extricated from the oven and given the full American Pie treatment. It promised 40 new hospitals, 20,000 new police officers and various other absurd, undeliverable claims from a man who’s now been removed from public office for being a serial liar.

He is, he said, “going to build an economy that embraces the opportunities of Brexit”. He knows – and we all know, by now – that these words carry no meaning whatsoever. There are no opportunities. There never were.

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The “profound economic crisis” the country faces has been made significantly worse by Rishi Sunak, and until such a certain truth can be acknowledged, no saccharine shows of sternness can or should be taken seriously.

He has chosen to live in the grand palace of Tory delusion. That you can have a low-tax economy, improving public services, higher defence spending and all the while maintain that massively damaging long-term economic growth was a good idea.

These delusions worked for a while but the public have now very clearly seen through them, and so, whatever he says or does, they have already seen through him, whether they or he fully understand it yet.

Liz Truss could hardly have made it easier for the public to see that she has learnt absolutely nothing. She spelt it out in about three sentences. Rishi Sunak is likely to take the full two years available to him, he may even just overtake Sir Anthony Eden (one year, 279 days) at the embarrassing end of the leaderboard, but the lesson will be exactly the same.