This election to the leadership of the Conservative Party comes at a time of great crisis. Not, of course, as existential as the crisis of May 1940, when Winston Churchill became prime minister despite not being the party’s preferred candidate, but a crisis nonetheless.
We are not really out of the pandemic, with cases increasing at an alarming rate. We have to deal with inflation on a scale we haven’t seen in a generation. And we have a war in Europe that looks depressingly like it could go on for a long time.
These challenges will require exceptional leadership if we are to overcome them. At the beginning of the contest, I wasn’t quite sure which of the candidates I would support.
But as it has progressed, it has become abundantly clear that there is only one person who can provide us with the leadership we so desperately need.
The most immediate of these challenges is inflation. Unless we can get it under control, the outlook for our economy is dire. The most vulnerable in our society will suffer more, we can expect more strikes and industrial conflicts and our economy will not grow as we all want.
Therefore, economic competition is an absolute premium. We are fortunate to have a candidate who has proven to be able to face economic challenges and guide us through very turbulent times.
Some of us remember the calamitous predictions that accompanied the start of the pandemic.
Unemployment was going to rise at staggering rates, millions of businesses were going to close, and the world as we knew it was about to collapse around us.
None of this happened and Rishi Sunak is the man who deserves the credit for this achievement. Thanks to Rishi’s leave scheme, we weathered that storm and today unemployment is at an all-time low.
Of course, this required increased government spending, which is one of the main reasons why the debt is so high. But is anyone seriously suggesting that we could have overcome the pandemic without such government intervention?
Since the debt is so high, it would be foolish for us to embark on a tax cut rage that would lead to even higher debt and feed the inflation monster that we absolutely must tame. This is why Rishi is absolutely right to insist that we must first reduce inflation and steer our economy to a place where it is safe to cut taxes.
I had the privilege of serving in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet. He certainly didn’t believe in cutting taxes in an irresponsible way. Nor Rishi, and he is absolutely right.