Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson could clash over the war in Ukraine

It must be tempting for a prime minister 15 points behind in opinion polls to wind down support for a foreign war, says Sean O’Grady

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak (PA)

Is Rishi Sunak about to get into a scrap with Boris Johnson? There are signs. The rumours from Whitehall, apparently well-sourced, are that Sunak may be going wobbly on Ukraine. He is said to want an assessment of the progress of the war on Ukraine and some idea about whether the war is winnable by some definition; what victory looks like; and what the unpalatable alternatives might be. Britain has much at stake, geopolitically and financially.

Britain is already the second largest military donor to Ukraine, committing £2.3bn in 2022. It has trained 27,000 members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces since 2015, and in the last year have provided hundreds of rockets, five air defence systems, 120 armoured vehicles and over 200,000 pieces of non-lethal military equipment. This, of course, at a time when Britain’s armed forces are being overstretched by what is being asked of them, including a spot of strike-breaking.

In addition, there are the costs of the energy crisis caused by Vladimir Putin’s war that are being imposed on households and businesses; and the effects of economic sanctions on Russia and on Putin’s cronies in London.