A brave speech from Rishi Sunak – but who is he trying to persuade?

The prime minister’s unexpected Downing Street statement was a stirring defence of Britain’s multi-ethnic democracy, writes John Rentoul

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When the prime minister says something is “beyond alarming”, that is hardly a reassuring message. Everything Rishi Sunak said in his surprise statement in Downing Street was brave and right, but that he felt he had to say it at all didn’t inspire confidence that he is in command.

When he said, “I need to speak to you all this evening because this situation has gone on long enough,” he sounded as if he was complaining that the government had been asleep on the job.

It is an extraordinary tone for a prime minister to take, listing all the things that have gone wrong recently that could be grouped under the heading of “extremism”, and implying that the government has been doing nothing about them not just “in recent weeks” but “months”.