Rishi Sunak ‘is in pole position’ to succeed ‘knackered’ PM

Speculation is mounting at Westminster over Boris Johnson’s future after the extraordinary No10 meltdown this week – with Rishi Sunak seen as in ‘pole position’ to take over.

The PM is braced for a potential revenge attack from Dominic Cummings after the maverick chief aide was ousted in an extraordinary power struggle with Carrie Symonds.

The Conservative benches are seething over the government’s performance, with claims the situation could become impossible for Mr Johnson unless there is ‘real change’. 

Meanwhile, many senior Tories are convinced the the ‘knackered’ PM will not fight the next election, with suggestions he could use the roll-out of a coronavirus vaccine as a moment to leave and seek an easier and more lucrative life in the private sector.  

Opinion is divided over whether Mr Sunak – a widely respected ‘fiscal hawk’ but a relative novice having only been an MP since 2015 – is angling for the top job, despite his public protestations of loyalty and that he does not want to be PM.

Some senior MPs are convinced he is ‘agitating like fury’, and has concluded he cannot afford to stay at the Treasury too long with a brutal reckoning looming on the public finances due to the pandemic.

But others say he has no need to press the case as ‘all he has to do is wait’ for when Mr Johnson chooses to step down.    

Opinion is divided over whether Rishi Sunak – a widely respected ‘fiscal hawk’ but a relative novice having only been an MP since 2015 – is angling for the top job. He is pictured on a visit to the Royal Docks in London today

Boris Johnson today

Dominic Cummings today

Boris Johnson (pictured left in a video posted from Covid self-isolation) is braced for a potential revenge attack from Dominic Cummings (right) after the maverick chief aide was ousted in an extraordinary power struggle with Carrie Symonds

Tories who have had dealings with Mr Sunak stress his formidable intellect and ability to process detail – something that contrasts with Mr Johnson who is regarded as more of a ‘big picture’ politician.

Mr Sunak is also known as a warm and engaging personality, with ‘Jedi level Star Wars trivia’. 

‘He has a ferocious attention to detail. He hoovers up briefing books, and always wants more not less information,’ one aide told MailOnline. 

Tory rising star dubbed the ‘Maharajah of the Yorkshire Dales’ 

Rishi Sunak, a GP’s son who married an Indian tech billionaire’s daughter and built a multi million-pound fortune that saw him dubbed the ‘Maharaja of the Dales’, enjoyed a meteoric rise to become Chancellor at the age of just 39.

A graduate of £42,000-per-year Winchester College and Oxford University, where he studied PPE, he is believed to be one of the richest members of Parliament, and lives with his family in a magnificent Georgian manor house in the small village of Kirby Sigston, just outside Northallerton in North Yorkshire.

His Instagram account depicts a sport-loving family man who dotes on the two daughters he shares with his wife, Akshata Murthy, whose father NR Narayana Murthy is India’s sixth-wealthiest man thanks to his ownership of multinational business technology giant Infosys. 

A multi-millionaire in his own right thanks to his investment career, Mr Sunak was known to be close to his former boss Sajid Javid, with the pair joining each other on nights out and sharing Star Wars jokes on Twitter. 

Mr Sunak has experienced a dizzying rise since taking William Hague’s Yorkshire seat of Richmond at the 2015 general election, which is when he first acquired his ‘Maharaja of the Dales’ moniker. 

His father in law, self-made billionaire Murthy Sr, is a household name in India after making his fortune through consulting giant Infosys.

Akshata herself runs fashion label Akshata Designs and is also a director of a venture capital firm founded by her father in 2010. Her shareholding in Infosys alone is estimated at £185million.  

The staunch Brexiteer was promoted to Boris Johnson’s Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in July 2019. He replaced Mr Javid in February after a row over advisors and has been in the hotseat as coronavirus swept across the country. 

Mr Sunak was born in Southampton and describes his hobbies as ‘keeping fit, cricket, football and movies’.

A fan of Southampton FC, he described his childhood hero as footballer Matt Le Tissier.

‘One of my prized possessions is an 18th birthday card signed by the entire Saints team, but Matt in the middle there, which I’ve still got,’ Mr Sunak told the BBC in an October 2019 interview.   

Mr Sunak is described as an ardent Brexiteer, and ‘loves freeports’ – a programme that he was promoting on a visit today. 

‘He is a fiscal hawk and gave ministers a run around on the numbers in his Spending Review,’ they added.

Some MPs regard Mr Sunak as not particularly tribal, despite his strong Tory instincts on the economy and Brexit. He has managed to stay largely out of the bitter infighting in No10, despite being the main Cabinet hawk on the need to ease lockdown.

He publicly professes total loyalty to Mr Johnson and has insisted he has no interest in becoming PM.  

But others point to his astute hires and slick PR operation, including images for popular policies such as Eat Out to Help Out that featured his signature.

He recruited in Allegra Stratton to handle his image – now the press secretary at No10. 

A senior Tory MP told MailOnline that bungling and U-turns on issues like free school meals had caused huge anger on the backbenches, and much would depend on Mr Johnson’s response.

‘I think people are now looking to see if there is going to be a change,’ they said. 

‘There has been a lot of smarting by MPs about that kind of mismanagement. 

‘We are looking for real change in in comms and direction. We need to see something different now. It’s got to be more on the front foot and looking at unintended consequences.’

 The Conservative MP said Mr Sunak was in ‘pole position’ to take over and did not need to ‘agitate’. They pointed out that Mr Sunak was holding extensive meetings with backbenchers, but that was just what a ‘good Chancellor should do’. 

‘He’s in pole position should Boris decide to go. I suspect the only people who wll stand against him are those who are then agitating for a job,’ the MP said. 

‘All he needs to do is wait.’

They also suggested that Mr Sunak might be more focused on the need to incentivise business and entrepreneurship than Mr Johnson, who has been pushing high-spending infrastructure projects. 

‘I don’t think there’s an expectation Rishi is going to turn on the entrepreneurs who are going to be earning the money, creating the jobs who will then be paying tax,’ they said. 

Mr Johnson is planning to set up a new ‘policy board’ as he scrambles to reconnect with increasingly restive Tory MPs.

He will offer more support to backbenchers in the ‘Red Wall’ northern ex-Labour seats that delivered his historic election victory less than a year ago – and vow to make more progress on his ‘levelling up’ agenda.

Mr Johnson is also due to lay out a new environment strategy despite strong resistance from the Treasury, as he seeks to ‘soften’ the government’s image.

But allies of Mr Johnson are concerned Mr Cummings will now set up a ‘guerilla operation’ with his former Vote Leave allies designed to destabilise the premier, and pave the way for Mr Sunak’s succession.

One said over the weekend: ‘It’s the beginning of the end. Boris has lost the room.’

An ally of the Vote Leave group told the Mail on Sunday: ‘You can smell it. It’s the end of days.’ 

A senior Tory MP told MailOnline recently: ‘Rishi can’t afford to be a long-term chancellor. He can’t go to the Foreign Office, he would just be forgotten. 

‘He is agitating like fury, Gove sees he’s got one last throw of the dice… Johnson will either go because the party will get spooked or he will do a Harold Wilson and announce he is stepping down.’ 

Some MPs believe Mr Sunak (pictured in Downing Street last week) is 'agitating like fury' to take over as PM

Some MPs believe Mr Sunak (pictured in Downing Street last week) is ‘agitating like fury’ to take over as PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Tory MP said the meeting had clear gone ‘t*** up’.