Rishi Sunak can’t afford to let policy U-turns and Tory rebellions stack up

U-turns were a staple of the premierships of both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, writes Chris Stevenson. They do not project an image of control

Rishi Sunak (Reuters)

The unity that Rishi Sunak was due to offer the Conservative Party after the tumult of recent months – years, even – has not been as complete as expected.

When Boris Johnson picked up his 80-seat majority at the general election in 2019, it was supposed to give the Tories the power to push through legislation that would reshape Britain. Instead, the party has become used to rebellion and regicide. The latest example is a suspected government U-turn over onshore wind projects, following an amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill that would lift the ban on such projects – a rebellion that gained the backing of both Johnson and Liz Truss. During his summer leadership campaign, Sunak published a plan for the energy sector that promised to keep the ban on onshore wind farms in England, noting the “distress and disruption” they “often cause”.

While the business secretary, Grant Shapps, played down the row, he hinted at a U-turn when he suggested there would be more onshore wind projects “where communities are in favour of it”. Not exactly a great look for Sunak, given that it comes in the wake of a separate rebellion on government housing targets, by way of another amendment to the same bill that has the support of around 50 Tory MPs. That has forced a delay to a parliamentary vote on the bill.

Labour has spotted an opportunity, saying that it will support the amendment relating to onshore wind projects, thus doubling down on the sense that Sunak is a “weak” leader who does not have control over his own party. There is no doubt that Sunak’s position is fragile. He either has to back down on some of his flagship proposals in order to placate the rebels, or rely on votes from Labour to get legislation through, allowing Keir Starmer and his party to pick the pieces they agree with and claim some of the political credit.

In an editorial over the weekend, The Mail on Sunday said that “voters have become so disenchanted with their former loyalties that they have rushed heedlessly into the arms of Labour”, and that it is not too late to “claw back what has been lost”, but that this can only be achieved “through discipline, determination and unbroken unity”. It gives a sense of the scale of the task Sunak faces when even quarters of the right-wing press are having to sound the alarm.

A general election might be some way away, and there is definitely still time for the landscape to change, but even so, Sunak cannot afford for things to keep going as they are. U-turns were a regular feature of Johnson’s premiership, and of the short time when Truss was in Downing Street; the current incumbent of No 10 will not want to complete that particular hat-trick.