It is a legitimate criticism of the House of Commons and its MPs that they live in a rarefied world dominated by Party politics and disconnected from the real world most of us live in. In short it is a cult with its own language, behaviour and mores. In response to this some have argued that we need more MPs who have demonstrated achievement in non political spheres and take up politics mid career.
Back in the early 1970s a once big boss of mine in Shell-Mex and B.P. , John Davies, left the world of business where he had been successful to become Edward Heath’s Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. He was no politician and though he continued in Parliament for eight years despite his business experience he cannot be judged to have been a success.
It is rare for people to change career in mid life and succeed in politics. Davies had never been any sort of grass roots politician and he clearly found the political world hard to fathom and the culture incomprehensible. Whereas the business world can be confrontational and tough there is nothing like the adversarial sub culture of the House of Commons. Which brings us to Rishi Sunak.
Like John Davies Sunak had been very successful in the world of business – high Finance in his case. He had become a Conservative at University but he was never active. He has no grass roots political experience and the first time he was elected to anything was when he became MP for Richmond, Yorkshire in 2015.
That Sunak was well educated , smart and successful – and very rich – no doubt appealed both to Conservative Central Office and to his well-heeled constituents in prosperous and leafy Richmond. Perhaps they thought that being clever and well off was sufficient qualification to make him a politician.
Sunak’s rise to the top from 2015 onwards was phenomenal. To become Prime Minister after just seven years in parliament was extraordinary – were we seeing a superstar politician in the making ? Well the only way to judge was to wait and see. Now nine months into his premiership it is fair to make an early assessment.
The first thing to say is that unlike his two immediate predecessors he is not mad, bad or dangerous to know. And he seems to work hard. But his lack of a political hinterland is obvious to see. In some ways his political naivety is quite refreshing. But this is based mainly on the fact that the only air he has ever breathed is refined. At Winchester, Oxford and Goldman Sachs he was among the elite. And from the public school’s Head Boy to the nation’s Head Man was a pretty effortless rise.
Grass roots politics requires you not only to get your hands dirty and relate to all in your constituency. Even the rich rolling hills of Richmond have their areas of deprivation. Twenty thousand voters in Richmond didn’t vote for Sunak in 2019. How well does Rishi know them and their priorities and needs?
You can’t blame a man for his schooling and upbringing, out of his hands. But once he presents as an educated adult it’s a different matter. That’s where opportunities like becoming a county councillor come in. When David Cameron and Boris Johnson left University it seems it didn’t occur to them to learn about politics ground up. As a consequence they never saw how the other half live.
Like two of his recent Tory predecessors Rishi Sunak then has no local level experience. But unlike them he served no political apprenticeship at all. He rose without trace to become an MP and became a junior minister within two years. Politics is a rough and tumble profession but Rishi never had to rough and tumble. It was laid on a plate for him.
So the Prime Minister lacks even a modicum of what might have given him a bit of the common touch. Wykehamists are less socially superior than their Etonian counterparts, but they are infinitely intellectually higher in rank. And to have been Head Boy demonstrated his smartness not his social rank. Unlike Dave and Boris he could never have been a Buller.
Rishi Sunak seems increasingly out of his depth in Number 10. He is not a toff nor a compulsive liar nor bonkers which distinguishes him from his immediate predecessors. But he is politically unqualified for high office and he has no social experience to suggest he understands the British people, except at a rarefied level.
Paddy’s Blogs in a crazy world 
This is an excellent summary of the man Paddy, thank you.
The Richmond Constituency covers a vast area of rural North Yorkshire. There is much wealth in the district mostly rich Dales farmers with generations of inherited land wealth. However, it also has areas of poverty. Not many to be fair. They probably account for the 20k who voted against him
Sunak plays the country gentleman and invites the public to his mansion at Kirby Sigston every year for a garden party. Yorkshire folk appreciate that. He is a popular MP. He’s one of them.
I have had some personal contact with him due to still being registered in the constituency. I have found him to be dogmatic and deeply rooted in his own ideology. He fails to bend to any suggestions or ideas outside his own opinions. In short, Sunak is blindly partisan an advocate, and adherent of a particular form of conservatism. An ideology learned and practiced through that rarefied education his parents worked so hard to pay for. Sunak could not possibly understand the difficulties ordinary folk have in surviving with the obscenely high costs of living in Britain today.
Margaret Thatcher for all her faults was a woman who understood people, better probably than they knew themselves. She had a hinterland it was part of her success.
Sunak will not last. He will be gone very soon. he will quit politics when he loses the election and return to America and run a major investment bank. It’s where he belongs. Thats his hinterland.
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