Sums don’t add up for Rishi, ‘the change candidate’

The prime minister told the Conservative conference he wants to fix ‘30 years of broken politics’. But he ignored the inconvenient fact that his party has been in power for 13 years – and has run Britain for 17 of the last 30 years, writes Andrew Grice

The prime minister pledged to end ‘the old consensus’ of the last three decades – ignoring which party has run Britain for 17 years of that time (PA)

For a numbers man who loves nothing more than poring over a spreadsheet when making decisions, Rishi Sunak has forgotten how to add up.

In his hour-long closing address to the Conservative Party conference, the prime minister pledged to end “the old consensus” of the last 30 years since the end of the Thatcher era. But he ignored who has run Britain during that time: we have had 17 years of Tory rule and a 13-year Labour regime in the middle. We have had six Tory prime ministers, from John Major to Sunak, and just two Labour premiers in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Presenting himself as the change maker will not mask the Tories’ record since 2010. It risks highlighting the sense of a “broken Britain” in which nothing works; public services are creaking after Tory austerity with crumbling concrete in schools and sewage in rivers and seas; strikes remain unresolved; and the country’s biggest infrastructure project is doomed to remain half finished.